The Three of Us
by DragonFire888
Summary: Ellie saw the look in Alec's eyes the look of cool detachment as he calculated the odds of survival for himself. It was an evil look, a dark look, the look of a sociopath. "Alec." she practically pleaded. "I'm sorry." he said before running off.


**I do not own the last of us or any other references I used in the story**

Loud noises reverberated through the town square where fifty fourteen year olds were lined in five by ten rows. The loud noise was a gong being hit again and again drawing attention from the crowds to look at the fifty assortment of children. Their expressions ranged from excited, to scared, to about to wet themselves.

"Young lads and lassies you are all here because you have reached a milestone in your lives!" A large burly man said his voice echoing across the square. "Every year we have sent those who have reached fourteen years of age out into the world for six months. This tradition was set to ensure the survival of the strong, and that our village has only the strong. This is the first year we have so many, and when the day comes I hope the strongest of you may return to continue the tradition!"

There were cheers from the crowd who had gathered to watch. "At attention!" the man in front of them called. In perfect unison the teens snapped their heels together their arms glued to their sides. "Be proud because by the end of the test the strongest of you will survive. The rules are clear, you may help one another, any killing done for any reason is permitted, and any action committed during the test will be forgiven. Regardless whether you survived or not if you are not at the predetermined meeting place to be retrieved you may not return. Anyone who makes it there and is able to walk back in on their own two feet is welcome! If any of you would like to try to escape then do it now."

A group of ten sprinted off in different directions the snipers immediately shooting them down. "That's what I thought. Now there are supplies in the town we have for a survival ground. Anyone who gets them keeps them for as long as they are not killed for it. Open the gates!" The large metal gates slowly creaked open. "You have all been given a knife, as well as a canteen, a mask, and a half dozen of you have a map with the location of the town, locations of provisions, and the predetermined meeting place! The map is one of the most valuable object here if you have one you are a target, be sure how much it is worth to you."

Ellie scanned the crowd looking for one face in particular; the only person she knew she would be able to trust. There Riley was third row fifth one in from the left. They had agreed to be each other's lifeline in this, and both were determined to survive and come back strong. If they did they would be one of the few females that did.

"Watch out for the infected and good luck! Three!" Everyone tensed watching as he cocked the pistol and pointed it in the air. "Two!" He covered his ears. Everyone was itching to run knowing if they did so before the bullet fired they would be shot. "One!" Everyone's breath caught in their throats. "Go!" The bang of the gun rang out.

The crowd took off as fast as they could run. Those who had formed groups beforehand joined each other and matched their paces. A few tripped and were trampled to death by the others who were taught not to stop or flinch. Frantically Ellie looked around for Riley. The latter found the former before the former could do so. "Come on we need to get ahead of the crowd!" Riley yelled and Ellie nodded.

They were the fastest runners in the town and everyone knew it. They took off ahead of the crowd and both were more than capable of keeping the pace over the long distance. Then came their first obstacle— a fork in the road.

"I don't suppose your one of those dozen with the map?" Ellie asked.

"No, what about you?" Riley asked.

"No." Ellie blew out air her lungs burning. "Well we know that the town is another ten miles, and if we make the right choice we'll be there before nightfall and way ahead of everyone else. If we make the wrong turn we'll tire ourselves out running the next ten miles."

"Then we'll tire ourselves out more running back and then all the good base camps are gonna be taken." Riley said blowing the hair out of her face. "You got any ideas?"

"Not a one." Ellie said rocking back and forth on her heels. "Do you have a coin?"

"I don't think we need one." Riley said walking over to a tree with moss growing out of it. "They said that the city is twenty miles north of our town."

"Yeah, but for all we know they sent us west and that other road is north. We should have checked the sun or something before we left."

"What did they teach us in survival training?" Riley asked fingering the moss. "About moss?"

"It only grows on the north side of a tree." Ellie said snapping her fingers. "Come on let's go."

"Don't have to tell me twice." Riley said before they took off once again. "So, the place we're heading?" Riley knew that Ellie loved anything that had to do before the world went to hell, and this was no exception.

"New York City. It was the biggest city in the world and now has the highest number of infected. I can't wait to see it." Ellie said.

"Any good place to hide?"

"Not that I know of; no one who hasn't been on this trip is not allowed to see any maps remember?"

"Then we're going to have to steal a map."

"From who?"

"We'll figure it out." Riley shrugged off the problem.

They made it to the entrance of NYC set up with road blocks and abandoned vehicals. "Wait a second." Ellie said looking around. "We can hide here for someone to wander in and if we see someone with a map. Worst case scenario we're back where we started."

"Alright you stay here and watch and I'll go look for some water." Riley took Ellie's canteen and ran off intent to locate them a fresh water supply.

Hours later Riley returned their canteens filled. "Any luck?" Riley asked.

"No, practically everyone's that's come in so far came in groups. A few of them had maps, but there are still five that I haven't seen." Ellie said. "There are only two or three people not here."

"That means the others either found another way in, or the people with the maps were those that got trampled to death." Riley said.

"Oh boy, both of them seem so appealing." They waited for a few more moments in silence. "Wait a second here comes someone."

"Who?"

"He has brown hair, so it's probably Alec. Remember him from survival training?"

"Oh yeah all that intellectual bull shit. Damien hated him, remember all that trash talk we heard in combat practice."

"Yeah, he took it pretty well though, do you think Damien will kill him out here?"

"If he keeps flaunting that map like that then he might." Riley said squinting to subdue the impending gloom. "No blood on him, they must have given it to him. How do you want to do this?"

"Considering he's taller and did a lot better us than us in combat practice let's wait until he falls asleep and then take his stuff." Ellie said. Riley having no better plan agreed.

Together they followed him as he walked through the city taking casual looks about. He was in no rush to get anywhere or anything. "Looks like he's finally going to find a shelter." Riley said watching him walk up the stairs of the building he had decided to settle in.

"Thank god I was getting tired of waiting." Ellie said.

As quietly as they could they snuck into the building. "That's weird I swear I saw him go in here." Riley said turning around and seeing Alec holding a knife to Ellie's throat. "Whoa, whoa, calm down buddy."

"You two talk to loudly." Alec said tossing Ellie on the ground. She let out an umph as she hit the ground and she glared up at him. "Calm down princess you were going to do the same thing to me except you would have left me without any of my stuff."

Ellie stood up wary of Alec who had sheathed his knife and looked calm. "You're not mad?" Riley asked.

"Not particularly. I knew that you were following me a few minutes after you started, I wasn't in any danger. Hell if I wanted to I could have killed you both when I lost you for those ten minutes in what is called China Town on my part of the map." Alec said.

"You smug bastard." Ellie said angrily.

"Yeah, but it's for good reason." Alec said with a shrug.

"Wait a second, you said your part of the map?" Riley asked. "Isn't your map of the city?"

"Part of it. New York is absolutely gigantic, and they only gave us bits of the map. That's why the map is worth killing for; the more you have of it the more resources you have at your disposal." Alec said showing them his part of the map.

"Wait a second if everyone only has a part of the map that means that only one of those pieces of map have the pick up point." Ellie said putting her head in her hands. "God damn it! I thought we could just fight our way through this, but now we've got to find the others and kill them in hopes they have a piece of the map. Or what if the people that got trampled have the maps with the meeting, or the ones that tried to run?"

"They don't." Alec said.

"How do you know?" Riley asked crossing her arms.

"Education is an admirable thing, but it is well to remember from time to time that nothing that is worth knowing can be taught, Oscar Wild said that." Alec said.

"What?" Ellie asked looking at him with squinted eyes.

"Yeah, smarty talk doesn't go through with us." Riley said.

"It's a quote not smarty talk." Alec said reaching into his pocket and pulling out another piece of map, and place it next to his own. "I had a few friends of mine make sure any deceased's maps made their way to me. There was only one."

"What friends?" Ellie asked.

"A few of the braver young kids willing to sneak into the morgue and make a run out of town a few miles out in exchange for some extra food and such." Alec said, and they have him a look that said they couldn't believe it. "I've been planning this since I was thirteen if you're not sure you're going to win then you've got to rig the game. Anything I did I did for a reason. The other maps must have just made their way into town without you two noticing."

"Then why did you let us follow you?" Riley asked.

Finally Alec seemed to hesitate his lip turning up as if he had smelled something rotten. "As much as I hate to admit it I do have weaknesses. One of them is I'm slow." Alec said scratching the back of his head.

"So you wanted us to follow you, so you could do this and organize an alliance?" Ellie asked and Alec nodded. "But how did you know we were going to follow you?"

"I didn't, but I did plan on making an alliance with whichever of you survived if either or both by the time we met. The fact that you followed me was just convenience." Alec said with a shrug.

"Alright say we help you, what do we get out of it?" Riley asked giving him a cold look.

"Strength, an extra person to help, parts of the map, and more then half a brain cell between you two." Alec said.

"Douche." Ellie said giving him the evil eye, but he didn't flinch. She turned to Riley who was looked as angry as she felt at Alec. "What do you think?"

"He's a douche, but he's not wrong. He gives more than he takes from the situation, and I'm not that great with my map reading skills."

"Neither am I." Ellie said with a huff. "Hey!" Alec looked up at them from his map. "You know where to find some food?"

"There should be a crate somewhere in this building." Alec said showing them the map.

"Alright then." Ellie said silently resigning them both to being stuck with Alec for the next six months.

After a half hour of searching they found a wooden crate with a pistol, a few purifying tablets, matches, a pot, and a few cans of food. "Who gets the gun?" Riley asked looking at Ellie then at Alec neither of which made any move for the gun. "Well?"

"I'm not a great shot." Alec said with tapping the scar over his left eye. "I prefer the knife anyway."

"Alright I'll take it." Riley said grabbing it and shoving it into the waist of her pants. "Can you start a fire with this stuff Alec?"

"Between the matches and the wood of the crate I think I can figure it out." Alec said picking up a random can of food. "These might be a problem though."

"You let us worry about that just get the fire started." Ellie said waving him off. He went to work leaving Riley and Ellie alone. "You trust him?"

"No farther then I could throw him, but if he does things only because they make sense then it makes sense to keep us around. He wasn't wrong when he said he was smarter than us; he probably has better survival skills." Riley said using her knife to cut into the can. "I feel if he could run he wouldn't need anyone."

"You don't think he'd get lonely?"

"Ellie, didn't you hear all the rumors about him?" From the look on her face Ellie hadn't. "Back at the town they diagnosed him with soscioapathy, he's a sociopath."

"Like murder and stuff?"

"That's psychopath." Alec said walking back into the room causing them both to jump. "Being a sociopath just means that I don't like people and I'm incredibly charming." Alec said winking at them and giving them a cocky grin. They shivered. "I have that effect on women."

"Stop talking like that you pervert you're making my skin crawl!" Ellie yelled angrily throwing a piece of rubble at him which he caught easily.

"That one usually doesn't happen until I get em alone." Alec said ducking back into the room where he had started the fire. "Alright it's lit."

They came in and mixed a stew from the canned vegetables and meats they had at their disposal. After a few minutes of cooking Ellie the cook of their group declared it ready. "This tastes like shit." Alec said scooping another spoonful into his mouth.

"Yeah real charming." Riley said rolling her eyes.

"Don't doubt me." Alec said quickly finishing his food. "I guess it get's the stomach full."

The trio sat in silence for a few minutes, Riley fell asleep leaving Alec and Ellie to listen to her breathe. "You have any family?" Ellie asked.

"You?" Alec countered.

"Besides Riley there no." Ellie said with a shrug hugging her knees and bracing against the cold.

"I got a couple of brothers back in town. The older one Matthew told me everything he could about this place from when he came here last year, so I had a better chance of making it, and I intend to do the same with the younger one Ricardo next year." Alec said stretching.

"That's breaking the rules." Ellie said.

"You're willing to break the rules if it's family." Alec said placing his hands behind his head and letting his eyes close.

"You're a sociopath they aren't capable of feeling emotion." Ellie said.

"Sociopaths can feel emotion we just look at people a different way."

"How's that?"

"Objects to use in order to achieve what we want to achieve. Not too different from what most people do every day. Of course we have a drastically reduced chance of finding love."

"Sucks to be you then I guess."

"Not as much as you'd think." Alec said adjusting himself to be more comfortable. "No love means no heartbreak."

"How did you get that scar on your eye anyway? Was it some kind of fist fight with a bear?"

"Something like that." His breathing suddenly evened out and his consciousness faded leaving Ellie to soon do the same.

Alec was the first to wake up the next morning. He stood stretching for a few moments before he woke up Riley and Ellie by pulling out their cardboard from beneath them. "Hey!" Ellie yelled angrily glaring up at him. "Why?"

"You didn't wake up." Alec said with a shrug. "Come on we better get moving; there's some place I want to check out."

"Where?" Riley asked packing up their supplies into three neat portions the three of them carried.

"A place called the New York Public Library."

"Why?" Ellie asked. "I know you like books, but we should be looking for the other pieces of the map.

"You don't think a place called New York Public library will have a map of the city. Even if it's not marked it still gives us an advantage over everyone else. Besides there's a provisions crate there too." Alec said tracing their route on their part of the map with his finger. "Come on we should be able to get there before noon at this pace."

"Riley and me could make it in half that time." Ellie said.

"Riley and I, but that's beside the point. You two stomp around like an infected when you run, and I don't want either of you to dishonor the place." Alec said increasing his pace.

"It's a library, what's there to dishonor?" Riley asked forced to jog to keep up with his long stride.

"The books." Alec said.

"Weirdo." Ellie said rolling her eyes.

They made it to the library a few minutes before noon according to Alec. "Alright masks on." Alec said seeing the infected stuck to the door. They pulled on their masks and Alec grabbed the infected shoulders pulling with all his might.

It came away with a crack and a flurry of spores surprising Alex and causing him to fall back. The door burst open and a clicker screeching its head off tackled him. Its teeth clicked as it snapped reaching for his neck in a horrifying manor. Ellie and Riley stood by shocked having never been so close to a clicker.

"God damn it!" Alec yelled pushing the infected bodies off of him and turning the tables. He was now on top stabbing the clicker in the neck repeatedly spores and blood going everywhere. He stood breathing hard and glaring at them through his mask. "I thought you could use that gun."

"I can I was just surprised." Riley said finally recovering. She and Ellie shivered at how close it was to killing him. "Sorry."

"Just be ready next time." Alec said softening up. "Come on let's see if we can find a map.

After the initial cloud of spores passed the air was clear allowing them to take off their masks. "Let's spread out." Ellie said staying close to Riley while Alec took off on his own. "You think there are more of them?"

"Do you see any?" Riley asked.

"Well no." Ellie said.

"Then no." Riley said.

"God you're such a dick!" Ellie said tossing a book at her only to find that she had disappeared. "Riley!" Ellie looked around poking around for her lost friend. "This isn't funny anymore, come on!" She was yelling to nothing. "Alec!" Ellie listened back and heard nothing. "Seriously! Anyone?" Her echoes were the only response. "Okay officially freaked out now."

"Click, click, click."

"Oh shit." Ellie said ducking down. A clicker stumbled by letting off low clicks every so often, and by the slowness of its pace it wasn't going anywhere. "God damn it, god damn it!" she whispered as loud as she dared. She decided to risk another peak. It was a bad idea.

The clicker let out a screech and charged at her. This attracted more and more clickers who responded with more yells. "Crap!" Ellie yelled sprinting off in the opposite direction.

She threw open door after door desperately trying to get away. More and more of them piled on tearing through anything in their way. Something caught her as she tried to charge through another door pulling her behind a table. "Ah! Get away from me!" She yelled desperately kicking and screaming, but the hold was firm.

"Ellie be quiet it's me!" Alec whisper yelled at her. When she opened her eyes to look she saw him there. "Now calm down we've got to wait this out."

"They've got Riley Alec! They've got her and they're gonna get us too!" Ellie said practically in tears. "Give me your knife, I'll end it here!" Ellie pulled his knife from his belt and positioned it at her neck. Alec pulled it back looking her dead in the eye.

"Calm down! We don't know Riley's dead." Alec said.

"But we are look at them out there!" Ellie said. The infected had spread out now calm, but still acute and ready to attack.

"Ellie look at me I won't let anything happen to you, so just quit it with the frantic talk!" Alec said putting his knife back in his belt.

"Promise?" Ellie asked gulping afterward.

"Promise." Alec said taking a breath and reassessing their situation. "Is there another way out of the room?"

"We could go through the window, but that'll leave Riley in here." Ellie said.

"She has a gun." Alec pointed out.

"And not nearly enough bullets." Ellie demanded.

"Aright, so we have to find a different way out." Alec said taking a quick peak. "There's a door over there, but more infected could see us."

"Can't we distract them?"

"Great idea." Alec grabbed a chunk of rock and throwing it through the window on the other side of the room. Several clickers ran right through the window plummeting to their deaths a few seemingly watched. "Come on."

Silently the two of them crept through the building moving from room to room. "God damn it." Ellie said after checking and finding another empty room. "Where could she be?"

"Hya, get the hell away from me!" Riley yelled her words quickly followed by several gunshots.

"That way." Alec said. They abandoned any traces of stealth with Alec breaking down the door with a violent tackle and Ellie running in with her knife drawn.

Riley was on the ground panting hard. A boy was on the ground in front of her a pool of blood forming around his head coming from a hole in his skull. Several others were in the same position on the ground. "Riley are you okay?" Ellie asked kneeling down next to her friend.

"Yeah, this guy saw us coming and let loose the infected he trapped in the rooms yesterday." Riley said slowly standing and adjusting her clothes which Alec took notice of. "Alec I found that map you wanted." She pointed to the wall where a beautifully made map was hung in a frame.

"Allow me." Ellie said grabbing a rock intent to smash open the glass.

"No!" Alec said grabbing her hand. "This calls for a more delicate touch." He took it off the wall and using his knife opened up the back being careful to take out the map. "Good news it looks like our map is a copy of this one." Alec lined up the pieces he had.

"I think these guys have a piece." Riley said.

Alec searched the bodies coming up with two pistols, a hunting rifle, a pair of binoculars, and a piece of the map. Considering the gun was incredibly long they decided it best for Alec to have. "They must have a crate somewhere around here I'll go look for it." Ellie said leaving Alec and Riley to themselves.

"Why'd you lie to Ellie?" Alec asked.

"What are you talking about?" Riley demanded.

"They tried to rape you." Alec said.

"How the fuck did you know that?" Riley asked frantically and closing the door.

"For one they died with a hard on and your clothes look like someone tried to tear them off you." Alec said.

"Look I didn't want to tell her because I didn't want her to treat me like a victim they didn't get away with anything. I stopped them before they could get their junks out." Riley said. "You better not treat me any different either."

"There's the thing, I don't care." Alec said shrugging his shoulders. "I just thought your friend would want to you know help you through what I've been told is a traumatic experience. As I understood it normal people need others to help them work through things."

"Oh stop acting so high and mighty. You've never asked for help before?" Riley asked.

"Of course I have, but the simple fact is that no one did. No one helped me growing up, and I don't expect anyone to."

"You asked us for help." Riley pointed out.

"No I asked for an alliance. No one gives something for nothing, and we both get something out of this deal." Alec said sitting down and leaning against the wall.

"You have a really depressing way of looking at the world." Riley said shaking her head.

"Yet I'm never depressed." Alec said wearing his cocky grin.

"Hey guys I found it." Ellie said walking in carrying a pack. "Who gets it." They looked at Alec

"Seriously?" he asked.

"Well you are the biggest here and you're a lot stronger you know being a boy and all." Ellie said.

"We both know you don't believe that besides flattery doesn't work on sociopaths." Alec said taking the pack and fastening it on. "Let's just get moving before those infected decide to flock back this way."

They took off exiting the library and hurrying back to their hiding place. "Think the next one will have flashlights?" Alec asked as he lit another fire.

"We can only hope." Riley said. "Does that piece of the map that we got from them have the meeting place on it?"

"No, but we are narrowing it down." Alec said looking at the unrolled map. "It can't be anywhere over here."

"Why not?" Ellie asked.

"Because it's all river." Alec said. "That leaves a lot of space left though."

"Well there's always tomorrow." Riley said.

"Yeah I guess so. Call me when dinner's ready I'm gonna go explore." Alec said walking up the stairs of the home they occupied.

Later when Ellie declared their meal prepared she went up to look for Alec. She found him in a swivel chair reading a book. "Hey dinner's ready." Ellie said poking her head in the doorway.

"Good to know." Alec said, but he made no move to get up.

"Um thanks for earlier. I was really going to lose it back there, and I might have well you know if you hadn't pulled me back." Ellie said.

"But in the end one needs more courage to live them to kill himself, Albert Camus said that." Alec said his eyes still glued to his book.

"You know I think if you didn't use other people's words you might be liked more." Ellie said.

"Maybe, but I want his conversation to be over." Alec said closing his book.

"Just trying to show a little gratitude." Ellie said rolling her eyes.

"If I say you're welcome will that end this sooner?" Alec asked.

"Try it we'll see." Ellie said raising her eyebrows. "Thank you."

"Your welcome." Alec said finally standing up. "Come on let's go eat that goop you call food."

"See imitating human behavior isn't that hard." Ellie said walking beside him.

"I never said it was, but if I act like a dick and everyone leaves me alone and I don't have to deal with people." Alec said starting down the stairs.

"You know I think you like the challenge." Ellie said.

"What makes you think that?" Alec asked with amusement in his voice.

"Just a feeling I have." Ellie said with a shrug of her shoulders.

They met Riley who had already spooned the stu into the bowls they had. "Not good, but better." Alec said.

The trio fell asleep soon after and rested from day's tiring experience.

The next morning Alec woke them in the same rude manor. "Up and at them!" Alec said with a laugh as they rolled and glared at him.

"Why do you hate sleep?" Ellie asked rubbing her head.

"I don't it's just fun to do that." Alec said his grin going from ear to ear.

"You know we're going to get you." Riley said.

"You can try." Alec said. "Come on let's go see if we can find some more pieces of the map."

They loaded up their supplies deciding it not safe to stay in one place for more than two days. "We need to find some drinking water our supply is running low." Ellie said checking her canteen not even half full.

"Yeah, but the supply we found is too far out of the way according to the map there there's a river up ahead. We can grab some water from there." Riley said pointing to a spot on Alec's map. They both gave him a look as if waiting for him.

"What?"

"No snarky comment or sarcastic remark?" Ellie asked.

"I think you both earned a bit of courtesy from me." Alec answered.

"You know if you tried hard enough you could be a half decent person." Riley said. "And that's a pretty big if."

"Alright all courtesy is out the window." Alec said causing Ellie and Riley to burst out into giggles. Their fun time was interrupted by a loud monstrous roar.

"What the heck was that?" Ellie asked everything having gone dead quiet at the sound.

"I don't want to stay and find out come on." Alec said taking off in the opposite direction the other two following closely. "I don't even want to think about what could make a noise like that?"

"Lion?" Riley asked.

"Where would it come from?" Ellie asked.

"You know what let's figure out what it is when we are somewhere far away." Alec said and they continued walking.

Eventually they came to stream of what seemed to be clean water. "Thank goodness." Riley said dropping down to take a drink.

"Hold it." Alec said looking over to see three dead infected nearby. "Do you think they had a drink of the water?"

"This looks like Max." Ellie said examining one of them. "You think the water's contaminated?"

"I think we should head a little bit up stream to find out." Alec said which they did after checking for and finding no supplies.

Later they found a dead clicker letting it's spores into the water supply. "That's be the culprit." Alec said pulling out of the water. "If we drink from above here then we should be fine."

"Want to take that risk?" Riley asked and no one did. "Alright let's go find somewhere else to drink from."

Later a gushing water pipe provided their water for the day. "Thank god." Riley said taking a long drink from her canteen. "What should we do now?"

"Look for the other teams and see if we can find the map." Alec suggested. "Unless either of you lovely ladies have a better idea." Alec turned away and didn't notice Ellie's blush or the shocked look Riley gave her.

Ellie looked at Riley whose eyes said "What the heck?!" In response Ellie shrugged apologetically. "How are we going to track them?" Riley asked not looking back at Ellie.

"We don't need to. One of the problems that we have in this environment is water, so we just need to wait by water sources and attack when they present themselves." Alec said turning back to face them. "Let's see, three dead back there, about ten died right at the beginning, and Riley killed four of them. That means that there are about thirty three people left in the city give or take a few. Not accounting for anyone who's in the city for other matters or the infected."

"Then there's that monster we heard earlier." Ellie said.

"Yeah and it." Alec said placing a hand on his chin. "We have three pieces of the map and there are three more out there somewhere. We have a map of the whole city, so we just need that one, and we could survive on the items we have at our disposal now."

"Thirty three people in this city are not going to be easy to find." Riley said.

"Maybe not, but we've got to try." Alec said.

They continued their walk in silence for a few minutes while Ellie and Riley fell behind to speak in private. "He's so ew!" Riley said to Ellie who blushed. "I mean why?"

"He's kind of sweet when he wants to be." Ellie said meagerly. "I mean he's not the worst guy it could have been."

"No that would have been a smug crazy ass hole who thinks he's better than you oh wait that's him!" Riley said and Ellie didn't respond. "He's an ass hole."

"Yeah, but he's charming."

"The crazies always are. Are you seriously defending him? I mean he's a sociopath he's incapable of feeling emotion and that means love."

"He said he can feel emotion he's just better at ignoring them."

"Oh that makes it so much better."

"Look it's not your problem, so can we just drop it."

"Just don't get pregnant before we get out of here."

"God will you not."

"It's just so funny watching you squirm." Riley said pinching her cheek.

"Hey are you two finished with your gab fest? There's something her worth looking at." They had fallen so far behind Alec had rounded a corner ahead of them and when they did a giant fence made of scrap metal greeted them. "Who do you think did it?"

"Well it wasn't one of ours." Riley said examining the fence. "There must be another group in the city."

"We should work our way around." Alec said looking one way then the other. "Looks like it goes on for a while; we better get started."

"Yeah we should do that." Ellie said. They looked at her awkward attempt that Alec thought nothing of, but Riley identified as Ellie's sad attempt at flirting.

"That was sad girl." Riley said when Alec was out of ear shot.

"Couldn't think of anything better to say." Ellie said giving a weak grin.

"Put some thought into it next time." Riley said.

"Noted." Ellie followed Alec who examined the gate closely.

After hours of following it around a roar came from within the fence walls. "Whoa, what could it be?" Ellie asked.

"It's got to be huge whatever it is." Alec said shaking his head. "Do you think the others might have come here?"

"Even if they did I don't see how they'd get in." Riley said shaking her head. "This wall goes on for miles, and it wouldn't be very smart to try and make contact they could be hostiles."

"How many of them could we call smart?" Alec asked and they had to stop to consider this. "Either way we should find a place to camp out."

"I vote for the top of one of these buildings of these buildings; I want to see what is making all that noise." Riley said.

"Looks like we can agree on something." Alec said quickly breaking in the door of the building Riley had pointed out.

They climbed to the top of the building and found at the very edge they could see over the fence. "Can you see anything?" Riley asked Alec due to being taller could see more than them.

"Yeah." Alec said squinting into the distance. "There's this giant thing in the center of the place that looks like it's making the noise." Another roar followed. "Okay it's definitely what's making the noise, but there are three or four of them not just one. They looks like clickers, but they have spores all over their bodies it's pretty disgusting."

"How many people?" Ellie asked.

"A couple hundred easy." Alec said shaking his head. "We should stay away from this place from now on."

"Yeah." Ellie said. "We should get out of here in the morning."

"No arguments here." Riley said.

Due to the fear of the neighboring town they decided against a fire and instead ate the cold food. "You know what I think I'm going to walk off that filling meal give you two some time to get to know each other." Riley completely ignored Ellie waving her hands frantically in a desperate plea to get her not to do this.

"What do you think she meant by that?" Alec asked.

"No idea." Ellie said immediately stopping her action when Alec turned to look at her. "Soooo, what kind of music do you like?"

"The usual I guess. I haven't really had the opportunity to listen to much of it." Alec said leaning back against the edge of the roof.

"I've got some." Ellie said pulling out her Walkman. She placed the head phones on Alec's ears and he listened for a few minutes. "There that's all you get I want this to last." Ellie shut it off.

"Not bad definitely not bad." Alec said nodding his head. "Hey I have a question, you and Riley are you like?" Alec had no subtle way to phrase it so he locked his fingers together.

Luckily for him Ellie got the drift. "Why do we look like it?" Ellie asked blushing lightly.

"Well you two are together a lot, and I suppose there have been rumors." Alec said with a shrug. "I don't mean to offend." To Ellie that proved that Alec was warming up to them before he wouldn't have cared if he offended.

"We kissed a few times." Ellie said her cheeks turning bright red. "Just to see how it would feel."

"And?"

"I could go either way." Ellie said honestly. "What about you ever had any experience?"

"Kissed a couple girls on the cheek." Alec said with a shrug.

"What happened to your charm?" Ellie teased.

"Please keep in mind that there is no reason for me to use it when there is very little chance I'll fall in love with someone. Seems kind of mean to make a girl fall for you and not feeing anything for her."

"You don't have a problem being mean."

"No, but stringing someone along is kind of cruel." Alec looked up at the sky night had fallen and the moon was high in the sky. "Wait a second you said you kissed a few times wouldn't you know after one?"

"Wanted to be sure, so sue me." Ellie said and they laughed. "Alright let's play a game. We each get one question and the other has to answer truthfully and we just go back and forth like that."

"That's what we've been doing." Alec said.

"Yeah, but now we have to."

"Alright."

"Me first then." Ellie said deciding to take the initiative. "Do you like anyone."

"You know with me it's pretty hard to tell I have no idea if what I feel is the right emotion to be feeling. I mostly just imitate what I think is appropriate; my friend back at the village says she hates me because I can forget about a person if I put it to logic."

"Sounds convenient."

"Yeah well it's not as easy as some might think. You can't always put logic to people they do things that don't make sense and we feel things that don't make sense. The world does things that don't make sense." Alec said shaking his head. "Like the cordyceps, why does a fungus that has only existed in insects suddenly have the power to infect humans." Alec sneezed then wiped his nose. "Alright my turn. What do you think you'll do when this is over?"

"What do you mean?"

"Are you going to stay in the village? I mean we don't have to go back, and you seem a little too smart to stick around that crazy place."

"I don't know I mean Riley and I have talked about leaving before this the place is pretty crazy."

"What are your plans?"

"Riley wants to join up with the Fireflies, I figure I might as well follow."

"You know sociopaths are pretty amazing at reading people's personalities, and you seem nothing like a follower. Even if Riley's your friend I doubt she could convince you to do something you didn't want to."

"Well I've always wanted to see more than just the village, so maybe travel a while. Satisfied?" Alec nodded. "Same question."

"Sociopaths can't stand to stay in one place for too long, so I'll probably do the same."

"Maybe we can travel together."

"Yeah maybe." Alec poked at the fire causing a few embers to float into the air. "What do you honestly think about me?"

"You're a douche, but now your my douche." Ellie laughed and Alec gave her a courtesy chuckle.

"You know what, no one's ever said anything that nice to me without obligation." Alec laughed and Ellie gave him a sad look. "What?"

"You don't believe anyone does anything except because they have to?"

"No."

"Why?"

"I don't know. Do you think if you weren't born into your family do you think they would give two shits about you? I mean if anyone annoyed me like my brothers do then I'd probably punch their lights out."

"Riley and I aren't family and we're about as close."

"I concede." Alec said and they dropped the point. "Why are you bothering to talk to me I got the impression you and Riley didn't like me."

"It's my turn." Ellie said trying to skirt around the question.

"No, you asked two remember?"

"Those count?" Ellie asked and Alec nodded. "You've really grown on me. You got one more."

They turned to look at one another and the space between them seemed to electrify. "Do you want to kiss me as much as I want to kiss you?"

"Yeah." Ellie said breathless.

Alec leaned in and their lips locked for the briefest of an instant. Alec was the one to pull away a shocked look on his face and he brought a hand to his lips. "What did I do something wrong? Riley says I have a problem with biting."

"No it's just I've never felt that way before." Alec said gulping hard. "Would you mind I think I need a minute." Alec walked off and Ellie pressed her forehead to the cool brick of the building.

"Whoo girl I thought he was going to melt the way he reacted to that kiss." Riley said walking back onto the roof. "Why don't you ever kiss me like that?"

"Shut up Riley." Ellie said blowing the hair out of her face. "I knew you were watching your walk was taking way too long."

"Yet you kept going."

"Okay, so I was a little caught up in the moment." Ellie said letting out a long sigh. "He said he felt something he's never felt before."

"That's good." Riley said.

"Yup." Ellie said. "Except I think that I scared him off; what does someone who barely feels emotions do when they suddenly get a jolt?"

"My guess is they want more." Riley gave her a half grin and wiggled her eyebrows. "I never said your biting was a problem I thought it was kind of cute."

"Thanks." Ellie said.

"You're a liar by the way."

"What?"

"I was only there for the last part not everything before, but I'd love to hear the story."

"Whatever."

"Where do you think he went?" Riley asked.

"Fire escape." Ellie said pointing down. "Is he?" They saw his pants come down. "Oh my god he is!" She slumped to the ground face in hands.

"You go sociopath!" Riley yelled. Alec looked up and clambered back into the window his pants still around his ankles. "Oh my god that is priceless! What do you think he's going to say?"

"He's a sociopath, he doesn't feel embarrassment." Ellie said.

"Ooo I hope not because if it was me caught doing that I would shoot myself." Riley said with a chuckle. "Come on let's go find Romeo, and try to convince him not to pull the trigger."

Ellie was the one to find Alec exiting a room and she guessed what he had been doing. "Hey." Alec said.

"Hey."

"Look sorry about what you saw."

"It's okay, it's nice to know you have that kind of effect on a boy."

Alec gave her a look that implied he didn't understand what she was talking about. "Ellie what do you think I was doing?"

"What were you doing?" Ellie asked sensing she was in mine field territory here.

"Taking a leak." Alec opened the door. There was a stain the corner of the room as well as the sharp smell of piss.

"Oh, oh, oh my gosh. I am so sorry, my mind just went right to the gutter and I was with Riley." Ellie was frantic she couldn't believe that she had made such a mistake.

"It's okay." Alec said a grin threatening to spread on his face. "Let's go explain this thing to Riley huh?"

They found Riley who laughed hard at the situation. "Oh my god Ellie." Riley said through her fits of laughter. "This is just too good shit like this never happens!"

"Yeah." Alec said. "You know what I'm going to hit the sack see you girls in the morning."

Alec left them and Ellie unable to ignore Riley's fits of laughter slept in a different room.

"Ellie!" Riley yelled the next morning waking up from her grog. "Ellie!" No response. "God damn girl making me look for her for my breakfast." Riley sat up and looked for the room where Ellie was. It was empty except for a Walkman. "ALEC!"

Alec came crashing down the stairs. "What is it?" he asked looking at the empty room.

"Ellie she's gone!" Riley said picking up the Walkman.

"She's probably just going for a walk." Alec said trying to keep her calm.

"No she wouldn't have ever left her Walkman." Riley said. "They must have come in here and taken her last night?"

"And we just slept right through it? Cam down!"

"No, Ellie and I worked out a code. If either of us were kidnapped we would leave our stuff to tell that it happened. She was supposed to leave her Walkman and I was supposed to leave this!" She held up a coin with the name Riley clumsily scratched into it as well as a firefly on the back. "She wouldn't just leave it by accident that's not Ellie!"

"Alright alright." Alec said biting his bottom lip. "Well either those people by the gate took her, or one of ours did."

"She would have fought harder if it was one of us make some noise." Riley said shaking her head. "Can't you do your sociopath thing read the situation?"

"I'm a sociopath not a psychic." Alec said. He took a look around and tried to piece it together. "That mattress, Ellie must have used it to sleep." Alec walked over careful not to disturb anything. "Whoever was here had to have surprised her." Alec took a look outside at the drizzle then at the wet spots on the carpet. "How long has that rain been going on?"

"Since last night." Riley said.

"Three drips and sets of mud prints." Alec said pointing to the ground then looking up. "Two of these prints are too big for teens it must have been two men a women or a teenager who took her."

"How are we going to get her back?" Riley asked.

Alec scratched his head racking his brain. "I'm not sure we can." Alec said.

"You're insane! We need to try!"

"I didn't say we shouldn't try just that the odds are against us on this one." Alec said. "Let's go to the roof maybe we can see her."

Using the binoculars they searched the camp as best they could. "I can't see her." Riley said with an angry release of air. "Wait a second."

"What is it?" Alec asked.

"Over there. It looks kind of like a prison area if she's not there now it's where she's heading." Riley said. "God damn it how are we going to get her out?"

"Getting in is the real problem." Alec said taking the binoculars. "There are three gates the closest one to the prison area is a few miles from here."

"Alright let's go."

"Hold on we need to wait until night comes or else they'll see us."

"Are you crazy who knows what they're doing to her in there!"

"Us getting shot won't help that. I don't like it much more than you do, but we need to be alive when we go to get her." Alec looked at her with cold eyes and this silenced Riley. "We should stock up on guns. We'll spend the day getting all the fire power we can from any crates we can find and sneak in at night and fight our way out if we have to."

"Good plan I'm glad Ellie didn't like for an idiot."

"Thanks I guess."

Ellie awoke with her head throbbing. She was in a cushy chair a forty year old clean shaven man with a baby face sat in the one across from her. "Hey how are you feeling?" he asked kindly.

"Good." Ellie said now officially creeped out. She rubbed the arms of her chair. "Um where am I?"

"You're home Amy." he said his eyes misting over. "Everyone kept saying you were dead, and for a while I believed them, but no! I knew you were coming back, and you were so close by this whole time! Who would have thought? Now you have got to promise me you won't run away again I really thought you were gone last time."

'Okay this got creepy real fast.' Ellie thought trying to back up only to find her legs strapped to the chair. "My name's Ellie."

"No it's Amy." he said. "I'm your daddy Randy you got to remember. Look our pictures are up there."

Ellie took a look up at the wall. There were five pictures on the wall. One of them was the man maybe fifteen years earlier with a girl who looked remarkably like what Ellie assumed she looked like when she was a toddler.

The next was one of a girl with similar features to Ellie standing next to Randy smiling. The next the girl wasn't smiling, but instead looked terrified. She was older than the girl before maybe twelve. The next thirteen the next after that fourteen. All of them had Ellie's rust red hair, white skin, and same details, but they were obviously different people.

"Look I don't know who you think I am, but I'm not any of them." Ellie said now officially freaked out.

This did not sit well with Randy whose face began to turn red in anger. "You're right you look more like Celia her mother!" He stood and every alarm bell Ellie had went off as he strided over undoing his buckle. He grabbed the back of her head and forced her toward it.

"No, no, no! I'm Amy! I'm Amy!" Ellie yelled trying as hard as she could to pull away.

"Oh Amy I'm so sorry." Randy said pulling back and putting himself away. "A daughter should never see her father like that, but I got to punish you for lying to your daddy." Randy picked her up undoing her latches. "I think a few days in the cage will sort you out."

Ellie found herself dragged to an area of the camp meant for prisoners. Several other kids from her village were there some crying others half dead. She gulped huddling down and she allowed a few tears to slip out.

"Are you ready?" Alec asked watching as the darkness crept over the sunlight.

"Screw if I'm ready we've got to get Ellie back." Riley said stretching out her stiff legs.

"We're clear on the plan?"

"Yeah."

"Good because it's go time." Alec said as night finally overtook day.

They slipped in passed the dozing guards easily making their way to some nearby homes. "Shit it's patrols." Alec said looking around the corner to see two men.

"It's just two we can take em." Riley said.

"That's not the problem where there's two there have to be more." Alec bit his bottom lip. "If we create a distraction and draw them all over there then we could have a better chance."

"Take a Molotov." Riley said handing him a bottle.

"You're a heck of a lot faster." Alec said pushing it back.

"Can you pick a lock?"

"You know if you do you'll prove a lot of black stereotypes in my head." Alec took the bottle.

"I'll risk it." Riley gave him a grin and Alec returned it before running off making as much noise as possible as he did.

Riley followed the plan avoiding guards and dodging her way through back alleys and between shadows. Suddenly someone grabbed her from behind. "Ah!"

"You're trying to take Amy from me! Don't think I didn't know you were coming they always come to try and take her away!" Riley's arms were pinned by his knees and she was helpless to defend against the blows that he rained down on her. "NOT THIS TIME!"

"Get the hell off of me you psycho!" Riley yelled thrusting up with her hips and flipping them around. She started delivering blows with equal ferocity and power. When she decided him officially unconscious she ran toward the cages.

Ellie was there hugging her knees and slowly rocking back and forth. "Ellie!" Riley whispered as loud as she dared.

"Riley!" Ellie said excitedly. They hugged as best they could through the cage. "What happened to you?" she asked noticing Riley's double black eyes as well as welts on her arms.

"Just a creep." Riley said taking out her lock picks and getting to work.

"You need to get out of here they make rounds every couple minutes." Ellie said.

"Don't worry Alec is causing a distraction. Speaking of which." As if on cue a loud explosion followed by roars followed. "God damn, that Latino must have some Iroquoian in him."

"What?" Ellie asked.

"Big thing happened about thirty years ago tell you the story later." Riley said.

A few minutes two of the locks were gone leaving only the third and hardest one. "Hey!" Alec said running toward them out of breath. "She's still not out?"

"These are pretty big locks." Riley said.

"Yeah well hurry it up because we've got about a minute. I kind of led them here." Alec said.

"How did they even see you?" Ellie asked.

"I wanted to stick around to see how well that monster burned turns out pretty well." Alec said with a shrug. "Come on let's hurry this along."

There were screams as well as orders soon followed by the stomping of boots. Alec looked back and forth watching them approach. "Come on!" Alec urged.

"Rushing me won't work." Riley said trying to remain calm. Her pick slipped from her sweaty fingers. "God damn it!" She bent down to pick it up.

Ellie saw the look in Alec's eyes the look of cool detachment as he calculated the odds of survival for himself. It was an evil look, a dark look, the look of a sociopath. "Alec." she practically pleaded.

"I'm sorry." he said before running off.

"You bastard!" Ellie yelled angrily throwing a rock from her cage at him. It hit him in the head, but his stride didn't falter. "I'll kill you, you ass hole!"

"Screw this!" Riley yelled grabbing a heavy looking pipe and slamming it against the lock. She repeated this several times trying desperately to free Ellie who was watching the men approach.

They were caught while Alec escaped with his freedom.

Ellie and Riley were tied down to two cushy chairs facing Randy who looked at them with a grim smile. "My my look at you Amy making friends out in the world." He looked at Riley and puckered his lips. "Can't say colored people is my choice of preference, but you decide your friends."

"Man fuck you ass hole!" Riley said angrily.

"Is that lip from you girl? Is this where you're learning your sass from Amy?!" Randy took of his belt and hit Riley in the face followed by Ellie. "In the cages for two days both of you no food or water!"

Ellie and Riley sat back to back in the cages panting like dogs as the heat of summer kicked in. "You think he's coming back?" Riley asked. "He's your boyfriend after all."

"Logic dictates that coming back doesn't make sense." Ellie said angrily. "You're right he's a complete douche I never should have trusted him."

"Don't feel bad. For a while there I trusted him too." Riley said taking off her shirt. "Do you think we're going to get out of here?"

"He has pictures of other girls up on his wall back there his other Amy's. God knows what happened to them." Ellie said.

"Maybe they escaped."

"Yeah I'm sure."

"You never know."

"Whatever."

Two days later Ellie was carted into Randy's room dehydrated and riddled with both sun and heat stroke. Being too weak to resist she was forced to watch as he nursed her tired broken body back to health.

After a month Ellie learned to respond to the name Amy without hesitating for a second. After the second month Ellie began calling Randy daddy like he wanted. After the third month Ellie was gone replaced by Amy, Randy's perfect little princess who wore makeup and pretty dresses.

She hadn't seen the dark skinned girl in a while, but daddy said people of her kind were bad company to keep around.

Amy sat looking out the window. There had been commotion lately about stolen provisions and busted locks, but her daddy had assured her not to worry. She used a makeup brush to apply more eye shadow and blush.

Her room was pretty and pink and for some reason had no mirrors. The one time she had brought it up with daddy he said it was because they didn't need mirrors to tell them they were good looking.

There was a roar and Amy turned to look out her window. The bloaters they kept caged up for research sounded unusually closer than usual.

There was a thunk outside her door and she took a peek. A familiar looking boy stood over daddy panting hard. "Ellie!" he said seeing her. Amy backed up immediately as he approached her. "Oh my god Ellie what did he do to you?" He touched her face and she flinched. "Are you okay Ellie?"

"I'm not Ellie I'm Amy." Amy said shaking her head.

"You're Ellie you've been trapped in here for three months." Alec said.

"No I've lived here all my life with my daddy." she said shaking her head. She pointed to the pictures hanging on the wall. "That's me."

"That's not you none of them are you!" Alec yelled grabbing the pictures and smashing them one by one.

"No!" Amy yelled kneeling down trying to salvage the pictures.

"God damn it Ellie get a grip, look at yourself!" He grabbed a large chunk of glass and held it up to her face and she turned her head. "Look!" He pulled her to her feet and forced her to look.

"Oh my god." Ellie said looking at herself and horrified at what she saw. "I look like a clown." The makeup was heavily applied and her lips were all kinds of shade of red from the numerous lipsticks she had applied. "I can't believe it, how long have I been here again?"

"Three months." Alec said and when he saw that Ellie was about to lose it he sighed snapping his fingers in front of her face. "Get you head in the fucking game Ellie right now! I do not have time for your pussy ass to break down now, so either you get your shape up or I leave without you!"

Ellie looked at him her horrified look turning to a vicious glare. She slapped him hard. "You bastard you left me and Riley here!" Ellie yelled angrily her fury taking hold. "I can't believe you think you can call me a pussy when you ran like a little bitch!"

"Good your back, but be angry at me later. We need to find Riley, where's the last place you've seen her?"

"Oh my god that bastard has picked out my clothes even my underwear!" Ellie looked disgusted and as if she was about ready to pull off her clothes.

"Look as much as I'd enjoy a strip show we need to move."

"Why?"

"I let the big guys out of their cages."

"Why would you do something so stupid those things throw fucking balls of spores!"

"I needed a distraction something better than a fire now onto Riley."

"She should be in the cages."

"Let's get moving."

They took off across the town ignoring the screams for help and sounds of combat. They found Riley in a cage panting hard when she saw Alec she freaked out. "Later later okay. I want to kick his ass as much as you do probably more, but we've got bigger problems than that now."

"Did you bring my lock picks?" Riley asked deciding to set aside her anger.

"Fuck that." Alec said grabbing a heavy looking rock and smashing the lock. "Alright let's move."

They finally made their way to the open gate where someone was waiting. "Amy wait! We can work this out! You don't need to run away! Amy!" Randy yelled.

Ellie took the gun on Alec's waist and shot him right through the heart followed by more and more shots until she was just dry firing. The click of the gun as she pulled the trigger without the bullet was sickening. When she realized the gun was empty she used it to smash his brains in.

"Ellie, Ellie! He's dead." Alec said pulling her off of the corpse. Tears trailed down Ellie's face and Riley hugged her tightly.

When she had recovered they kept running as hard and as fast as they could manage. Alec was actually able to keep up due to Riley being malnourished and Ellie being out of practice. "Wait a second we need to stop here." Ellie said pulling them to a stop at a department store for women's apparel. "You stay out here Riley I might need a little help."

Ellie immediately slipped into the restroom stripping off each piece of clothing each felt more filthy than the last. "Did you think he was going to come back?" Riley asked.

"I thought you two had some kind of plan worked out without me." Ellie said turning on the water and her first break in weeks it worked. She washed herself in the sink glaring at her face covered in make-up, and she continued even after it was gone. "Could you get me some clothes? I would rather be naked then wear those things."

"You got it kid." Riley said.

Ten minutes later she returned with a red t-shirt, blue jeans, and underwear that fit. "God I can't believe how fast I cracked. I actually believed that you weren't a good person. Riley I am so sorry."

"Don't worry about it Ellie you did what you had to so that bastard wouldn't kill you."

"He, he almost raped me." Ellie said sniffing. Riley hugged her tightly and Ellie erupted in more sobs her tears actually cleaning the dirty fabric of Riley's shirt.

"There there let it all out." Riley said. When Ellie calmed down she pulled away. "I'm gonna go find some clothes for me and then we'll go kill Alec." For the rest of their lives both of them would owner whether Riley was joking about that.

Alec was waiting for them on a bench a little ways away from the exit. "Hey." Alec said standing. They didn't know where to start and Alec felt like he had an idea. "I ran."

"Yeah like a pussy! How the hell could you have done that?! We fucking had a game plan if you had stuck to it then we wouldn't have been trapped and we could have made it out!" Riley yelled.

"Do you know what he did to me? He was fucking evil I actually believed I was his daughter! You left me and right when I thought you were okay, and if you think for a fucking second that saving us makes up for that!"

"I don't."

They yelled at him for a few more minutes and they waited. "You're gonna try to defend yourself?" Riley asked.

"Do you want me to?"

"No." Ellie said in fact she wanted to leave him there, but her sympathy won out. "But we're willing to listen."

"Things weren't great for me after I ran, and believe you me I regret running, but there was zero percent chance of us getting out of there if I didn't and by the looks of things neither of you were planning the great escape." They looked away in shame of that weakness. "I got jumped and they took everything. Maps, food, water, and weapons. I tried to salvage supplies, but there wasn't a lot I could do. It took so long to come and get you because I had to build up my odds."

"What was your percent?" Ellie asked.

"Look that doesn't matter." Alec said.

"No at what percent are our lives worth risking yours? Answer the question." Riley said.

"Somewhere between zero and one percent. I went in with bolt cutters that I lost and a pistol."

"That doesn't make sense." Ellie said shaking her head. "Why would you do that if you're all about the best way for you to survive?"

"I try to rationalize things, but humans can't always do that. We feel emotions and do things that aren't rational and we do it with no reason other than because it felt right." Alec said ringing his hands. "I tried to leave I'll admit that, but I couldn't."

"Alright." Ellie said.

"Alright?" Alec and Riley asked.

"Alright." Ellie answered. "It's my place to forgive him and I choose to."

"Fine." Riley said shaking her head. "I got my eye on you though boy."

"No need I'm done." Alec said shaking his head.

"What do you mean?" Ellie asked.

"I can't take another three months of this bull shit especially if there are any more of those big guys back there. I thought the plan we mentioned three months ago was pretty solid. I'm going to explore while I can still move." Alec said.

"Do you even know where you're going?" Ellie asked.

"That's why they call it exploring." Alec said as if it was obvious.

"That's a stupid plan you could die out there and no one would know, what about your brothers?" Ellie asked.

"Both of them are set up well enough." Alec said.

"What about that one whose turning fourteen next year?" Ellie demanded her anger quickly turning to genuine concern.

"As far as anyone's concerned his name is Jeffery Lin a kid who went out last year and came back without a scratch on him. Took some work to pull that one off, but it happened." Alec said looking quite smug. "Look there's nothing you can do to convince me, so just stop."

"Then we'll come with you." Ellie said.

"I was hoping you wouldn't come to that conclusion." Alec said now deflated. "Why?"

"Riley wants to join the Fireflies and odds are you're going to run into a few on your travels." Ellie said.

"That's stupid the odds on that are astronomical." Alec said shaking his head.

"Well I'm coming with and you can't stop me so just stop." Ellie said.

"Are you really on board with this?" Alec asked turning to Riley who had her arms crossed.

"She's not wrong there's a good chance that we'll meet a Firefly and if she follows you then I either follow too or I'm on my own." Riley said with a shrug.

"That's idiotic for so many reasons." Alec said and just as they were sure he was about to list them off Ellie took off. "Conceiting?"

"No, but we need equipment and I stashed some over this way." Ellie said digging out a crate from some debris. Inside were three canteens, pistols, knives, a rifle, and a week's worth of rations.

"When did you have time to do this?" Riley asked.

"You two can't be the only ones with secrets." Ellie said holding out the equipment to Alec. "It's yours if you let us come along."

"Fine." Alec said taking the weapons. "I don't understand this at all."

"You don't need to." Ellie said comfortingly.

They made their way out of the city that night into uncharted forest territory. "Whoa." The one word Ellie said expressed what all of them felt. "Fireflies, real ones."

"I've never seen anything like this before hell I didn't think it existed." Alec said taking in the marvelous sight before him. They stood in silence for a few minutes admiring the fireflies as they flashed in the dark. Alec was the first one to recover. "We should make camp."

"Yeah." Riley said shaking her head.

Without matches the fire took a good fifteen minutes to start, but it did light. The fire burned hot, but was nothing compared to the nearly freezing temperature of the night. Summer had come and gone in their time imprisoned in the camp and winter was only a few weeks away.

Alec had left to take a leak and instructed neither of the to follow. "My god do you think he's ever going to let that go?" Ellie asked looking at Riley who was giving her a look of contempt. "What?"

"Look I didn't want to make you look stupid in front of Alec, but why the heck are we following him?" Riley asked shaking her head. "Do you still have a thing for him, and now that I bring it up I'd like to know where you and me stand relationship wise I mean."

"You know what let me go check." Ellie said.

She stood and followed Alec's trail. She found him sitting on a river bed shivering. "There a reason you're here and not back at our campsite with our warm fire?" Ellie asked slumping down next to him.

"Trying to hone my focus." Alec said turning to look at Ellie. "Look I really think that you must hate me which is why it'd be better if you and Riley left on your own."

"Will you stop with that already! You did what you had to and if you hadn't we would have been stuck in that camp for the rest our lives."

"But you both still hate me!"

"That will fade, of course we're angry, but we're also friends and you can't just abandon friends."

"You'd be better off if you did."

"Why are you pushing this so hard? You did something bad, and we're willing to forgive you, so why can't you let us forgive you?"

"Because I feel guilty!" Alec yelled finally cracking. "I don't understand why, I've done worse things for less, and for some reason I feel guilty! I saved you both and I feel guilty about it."

"You feel guilty because you abandoned your friends."

"No I didn't I went to save them!" Alec was obviously frustrated with both Ellie and himself now.

"It's not a bad thing it means your human feeling emotions like this."

"That's not my point. I just wish I didn't."

"Well that's part of being a human you have the good feelings and the bad."

"I don't like it."

"Not a lot of people do." Ellie hugged herself tighter. "Alright one round of question/answer do you want to kiss me?"

"Definitely." Alec said leaning in for a kiss. This time it was Ellie who pulled away looking at the snow a frown on her face. "My turn, did you feel anything?"

Ellie couldn't meet his eye.

"So you don't forgive me?"

"No I forgive you I just can't do this with you." She motioned to the space between them.

"You follow me by force you forgive me, but picking up where we left off is out of the question?"

"You're right it doesn't make sense, but I keep seeing you give me that same look and you running away. Even if I forgive you even if I still feel something for you I can't get it out of my head."

"Your head forgives me, but your heart doesn't."

"Yes!" Ellie looked thankful. "Thank you for putting my words in that wussy talk it makes it easier to understand."

"Do you still feel something for me?" Alec asked.

"Maybe, but for now it's out of the question." Ellie dusted off her bottom and stood. "You coming?"

"I'm going to stay here and think for a bit."

"Alright." Ellie said walking back to their camp site where Riley was standing impatiently.

"Well?" Riley asked.

"Kiss me."

"Don't have to ask me twice." Riley took Ellie's face in her hands and forced their lips together. It was odd, but to Ellie it felt electrifying just as it had always had. "Well?" she asked when they had both pulled away in desperation for air.

"You have a much better chance than Alec a much much better chance." Ellie said nodding she was slightly winded, but otherwise enthralled.

"Good to know." Riley said with a smile.

Ellie calmed down and laid on the ground flipping to her side intent on sleep. Riley lay down next to her wrapping her arm around her waist. Had it been Alec who had tried this she would have punched him in the nose, but this was Riley, and in all fairness Ellie wanted some human contact right now. So she hugged Riley's arm and pressed herself to her friend's chest and slept better than she had in months.

Ellie awoke early the next morning just when the first rays of the sun had peeked over the horizon. Weary eyed she looked across their camp site and found that Riley had only pulled her closer in their sleep.

The next morning the fire was dying down to its last ambers. Riley was still asleep and Ellie did not want to disturb her, so as quickly as she dared she wiggled from Riley's hug and completed her morning rituals.

Looking around she saw that Alec was nowhere in sight and gave brief consideration to the thought he might have left. She dismissed this when she noticed most of his equipment was still there. He wouldn't have been dumb enough to leave what could keep him alive here.

Sure enough a few minutes later he walked back into their camp site his canteen filled with water that he dumped over the fire. He left once again to refill his canteen most likely. Ellie grabbed Riley's canteen and followed him to his spot by the river squatting down to fill them beside him.

"How early do you wake up?" Ellie asked surprised at how early he awoke.

"We fell asleep pretty early last night." Alec answered standing up. "I usually wake up around this time then give you two another hour before I wake you up."

"Why?" Ellie asked.

"It's a better idea to keep moving." Alec said turning back to camp.

"Let me wake Riley this time will you?" Ellie followed him. "She might kill you if you keep doing it."

"Yeah alright." Alec suddenly stopped and Ellie did the same concerned for him. "Ellie, I'm sorry I really am, but I can't stop feeling things for you it's not like usual I can't just ignore it."

"Alec we talked about this."

"Yeah, but I didn't like the outcome. Whether all of you forgives me or not I'm going to keep trying until all of you does or all of you rejects me. I don't care that you and Riley are the way you are, but I'm going to keep trying until you completely reject me. Not if Riley threatens me or tells me to back off only if you reject me." Alec seemed to mean every word; it sounded as if he had painstakingly constructed this speech which he probably had.

Ellie realized that she should have rejected him right there told him to stop trying, but she couldn't find it in herself to do so. She thought that perhaps on some level she still had hope that he could win her over. "Okay." Ellie said rubbing her arm. "I'm okay with that."

This seemingly was the reaction that Alec expected, but he still looked disappointed. Then again Ellie wondered if he could be upset he had probably thought of every possible outcome as well as their likelihood anyway. He nodded and they started back to the camp site where Riley was still asleep.

The sun by this time was shining brightly overhead the trees providing sufficient shade. They made their way to the main road and continued on it for a few miles. "Do either of you know where we're heading?" Ellie asked since both Riley and Alec were arguing about which way to take when they came for a fork in the road.

"I have a fantastic sense of direction." Alec said.

"That's what all boys say." Riley said.

"But do either of you have a specific place that we should go in mind?" Ellie asked and neither of them did. "This is why we need to talk about things before hand, so we're not just wandering around." Ellie sighed pinching the bridge of her nose.

"Where should we go then?" Riley asked confidently.

Ellie looked between Alec and Riley who stood by their respective roads. The situation was tense, but Ellie chose Riley's path keeping them close to the ocean. Riley gave her a quick kiss on the cheek and Ellie saw Alec's expression darken. It never occurred to her this might have kind of put her on one side of a line.

They continued down the road coming to a gas station that had been mostly ransacked. "Come on let's check it out." Ellie said running up ahead of them and trying to open the door. "The chains stuck." Alec was the only one with the physical build strong enough to break down the door, so they both naturally looked at him.

"Stand back." Alec said looking rather contempt. He planted himself firmly and raised his foot kicking the door with incredible force. After the third time the chain holding the door closed gave away and Alec took a peek inside. "Don't come in here you don't want to see this."

"Why what is it?" Ellie asked both she and Riley ignoring his advice.

They gasped in surprise and horror seeing what was inside. Three skeletons lined the wall opposite of the door. This would have been fine except the skeletons were small and childlike. Coloring books littered the floor as well as empty containers of food and crayons. "Oh my god." Riley said turning away.

On the wall there was writing in what seemed to the kid's crayons. "Stay inside" was all it said and these kids had followed those instructions to their death. "I can't believe it." Ellie said walking over to the skeletons.

"Ellie you don't want to do that." Alec said having already seen what he hoped she wouldn't notice.

"Teeth marks." Ellie said feeling as if someone had punched her in the stomach. They riddled two of the bodies and third had died holding a knife most likely used to kill the other two.

Alec was the one who took care of the bodies taking them up in his arms and moving them outside out of site. Ellie and Riley were left inside to feel traumatized by the horrific sight. "You never think about what happens to the kids." Riley said shaking her head.

"How can we? It's so hard to just survive on our own how are we going to worry about the kids. The weakest people in the world." Ellie said on the verge of tears. She decided to distract herself by poking around. In a drawer that was unusually high up of the ground she found a key. Walking into the back of the store there was medical supplies and food locked in a cage that the key opened.

"It must have been terrible dying of hunger with food just out of reach." Alec said choosing now to make his presence known.

Ellie turned to look at him he was covered in dirt and had sweat on his brow leading Ellie to believe he had dug a shallow grave. "It wouldn't have mattered even if they had gotten to it no one was coming back for them. It just would have prolonged the inevitable." Ellie slipped the key into the lock and pulled out the food all still sealed and still edible. "Twinkies."

"Do these really last forever?" Alec asked playfully.

"It must be nice at moments like this, being a sociopath I mean, must make it easier to deal with."

"Yes and no, no because you wish that you could feel something for them, and yes because you're glad you don't." Alec helped Ellie carry the supplies back to the front where Riley was hugging her knees looking mortified. Neither of them commented.

They divided the supplies in silence and then Alec took a sweep of the store. He came up with a map of the country most likely used for road trips. They sat around a table on chairs that Alec had found. He had the map spread out looking it over. "We're somewhere around here, and depending on where we want to go we're a hundred miles or fifty miles from the next town." Alec said pointing to the next cities.

"Can we not talk about it just yet? I still need a little time." Riley said and Alec shut up silently making plans. She found Ellie's hand in her lap and squeezed it tightly finding strength in her partner.

"It's okay take as long as you need." Ellie said. She herself didn't feel too hot either, but she knew Riley needed someone more than she did. Ellie looked over at Alec and felt a pang of jealousy at his ability to feel nothing over this. Ellie knew that Riley had a weakness when it came to children. She believed them one of the few innocent people in the world, so this was much worse than just dead bodies.

Another half hour in grim silence was how long it took Riley to finally come to terms with things. "Alright what were you saying?" Riley asked turning to Alec who was mumbling to himself.

"Where do we want to head?" Alec asked several points on the map he had been interested in. "If we keep heading this way we'll end up in Boston if we go this way at the next fork then we're in for a walk."

"Let's head to Boston I want to see a real ball park before I die, and a friend of mine told me that Fenway park is the one to see." Riley said.

"What friends; who's willing to be your friend besides me?" Ellie asked jokingly.

"I know people." Riley said mirthlessly.

'I guess this is better than her crying.' Alec thought to himself. "Alright since I don't have a better place in mind I agree."

"Agreed." Ellie said nodding her head. "How long is it gonna take to get there?"

"A week at least." Alec said shrugging his shoulders. "It's about two hundred miles from here. Depending on how long we take getting through the road and which road we take we could get there in one week or a few months."

"Let's take the long way around." Riley said wearing an excited grin. "This is actually our chance to see the country like we've talked about Ellie."

"Yeah." Ellie said the onset of what they could do was finally hitting her. "We could go anywhere see anything and no one could tell us we couldn't."

"No rules, no regulations, and little to no military." Riley said awed by the possibility. "I can join the Fireflies later right now we've got to see what we can."

"So what do we want to see?" Alec asked raising his eyebrows. "I'm fine with whatever, but we better make a plan right now."

"I want to see boats, stadiums, um that Niagara falls everyone talks about, and um, um." Ellie racked her brains trying to figure out what else she wanted to see.

"The Grand Canyon definitely and the Golden Gate bridge." Riley said. "The Vegas Strip I heard that a bunch of rich guys have been operating casinos that let anyone in."

Alec marked each location on the map, how he knew for them to wonder. "What about you?" Ellie asked.

"What about me?" Alec asked.

"Where do you want to go?" Riley asked.

"I'm just glad to have friends to go along with." Alec said honestly.

"Awww." Riley said. "We're glad we have you around too buddy." She put him in an effective head lock and they wrestled playfully for a few minutes. "Alright how long is our little road trip gonna take anyway?"

"Anywhere from six months to a year." Alec said. "Maybe longer."

"Aright how are we gonna do this?" Ellie asked grabbing the pencil Alec had been using. "The way I see it we go to Niagara Falls, do a little cross country walk to see the Grand Canyon Las Vegas, and the Bridge. Then we come back around and end our cross country tour back here at Fenway park." Ellie traced their route along the map with the pencil.

"Then we'll see about me joining he Fireflies and such." Riley said looking at the plan. "Oh Alec are you okay with this I mean I know cross country is your ethnic sport after all."

"Says the fast black girl." Alec said a smirk. "Just don't rob us on the way there." Riley gave him a playful shove. "Ellie what do you call a white person on fire?"

"A fire cracker." Ellie responded and they erupted in laughter. "Alright let's stay here until morning and start then." Ellie felt very happy. There was no drama complicating things, no infected, no crazy people, they were friends going on an adventure.

"Agreed." Alec said taking a look at the map. "It'll give me time to plan a real course cause this will take us straight through the Rio Grande."

"Gosh you're such a dork." Ellie said with a chuckle.

Night came quickly as it usually did this time of year leaving them all to go about their business in the convenience store.

Ellie and Riley were in the back looking through a few boxes of items that was left untouched by the children. "Flash lights, some extra clothes, nothing of much use." Riley said as she slipped on a solid black hoodie with an R in red on it. "Ooo looks like we've got sleeping bags."

Ellie ruffled through the boxes she had, mostly just old junk, but it was interesting seeing them. "No way." Ellie said reaching into the box.

"What?" Riley asked looking up only to get a camera flashed in her face. "God damn that could stun a tiger."

"And you apparently." Ellie watched as the picture was developed and spat out by the camera. It portrayed the stunned Riley caught off guard by the flash. "Not bad, but your hair could use a little work."

"Oh shut up." Riley said only to be teased by a quick peck on the nose. "You know that won't always work."

"I think when you look at it I'm the girl of the relationship, so I'm always right."

"We'll see."

"Looks like there's a tripod." Ellie slipped that out and saw it fit the camera perfectly. "Looks like we're going to have documentation of our adventures."

"Just in case no one believes us." Riley smiled. "Come on let's go get our douche and get a picture for the history books." Riley would never know how truly accurate that statement was.

They walked outside handing Alec a flashlight and sleeping bag. "Come on Alec we're gonna get a group picture." Riley didn't ask.

"Why?" Alec did.

"Get your ass up!" Riley said playfully shoving him into place in front of the camera. "You almost set there Ellie?"

"Yeah." Ellie clicked the timer for ten seconds.

The three of them stood side by side with Ellie in the middle their arms around her. Alec's arm was around her shoulders showing their current state of emotions, and Riley's arm was wrapped around her waist in an intimate manor.

The camera flashed and the picture came out better than any of them could have wanted. "It's going to get ruined if we put it in our packs." Alec said wondering how to preserve the picture.

"I think I saw something in the back." Ellie said walking into the back and bringing back a scrap book with a few hundred pages. "Eh, eh? She slid the picture into the sheet protector as well as the one of Riley.

"Not bad." Alec said with a grin. "Let's get to bed I want to start bright and early tomorrow morning."

"What's the rush?" Riley asked.

"The rush is that there's none at all." Alec said slipping a scrap of notebook paper into the sheet protector. "Let this official document commemorate the beginning of the adventures of Riley, Ellie, and Alec on October 3, 2033."

"You are the biggest dork ever." Riley said.

"For the history books." Alec teased.

"Ooo hoping you didn't hear that."

Alec laid down and quickly fell asleep soon followed by Riley and Ellie who slept apart for the night.

Ellie awoke quite suddenly for no apparent reason. She looked around looking for what could have awoken her, but there was no apparent reason. The door to the convenience store was slightly open, so Ellie closed it.

A low sound suddenly caught her attention. Turning she saw a closet door slightly open another odd thing since she could have sword that she had closed it. Getting a very bad feeling she shuffled forward reaching for the door knob.

"AHHH!" It was a runner that burst out of the closet tackling Ellie to the ground.

"Ahh, help! Riley Alec get the hell up!" Riley screamed pushing as hard as she could, but it was a losing battle as the runner must have weighed two hundred pounds.

Alec was the first one on his feet running over his gun drawn. A runner burst in through the convenience store glass doors and tackled him to the ground. Riley was the next one up putting a bullet in the head of a runner who tried to get her. Alec flipped the position and blew the runner's brains out.

They both went straight for Ellie who had been struggling with her own runner. Riley tossed it off of her and Alec put a bullet in its head. "Are you okay Ellie?" Riley asked.

"No." Ellie said shaking her head. She rolled up her sleeve and revealed a bite mark looking mortified. "This can't happen we all just had a moment we had a plan we were going to see the world!"

"Ellie calm down." Alec said watching Riley scramble in his backpack. "What are you doing?"

"We can hack it off if we use our knives." Riley said grabbing the biggest knife in her pack. She came running back and held down Ellie who looked terrified. "It's the only way."

"Wait, wait, wait!" Ellie yelled struggling, but Riley had her pinned.

"It's the only way." Riley brought up the knife intent on cutting off Ellie's arm.

"Will you two calm down!" Alec yelled grabbing the knife out of Riley's hands and throwing it across the ground. "Get off of her!"

"We need to do it it's the only way." Riley insisted.

"Even if we do chop it off there's an even better chance that she'd die from an infection or blood loss!"

"We have to try!" Riley was desperate now.

"Can you not discuss how I'm gonna die or what limb to hack off like I'm not here?" Ellie screamed. "Riley get off me."

Riley looked down at Ellie then up at Alec and she stood hugging herself tightly and lightly shivering. She laughed her life was about to end and she laughed. "What's so funny?" Riley asked bitterly.

"It's just funny, all the shit we survived and this is what's going to do me in." They didn't argue with her everyone knew that a bite was a death sentence. "Right after we've made all these awesome plans to see the world too."

"Don't talk like that." Alec said sitting down next to her.

"There's no way out of this Alec, I'm dead." Ellie folded her hands in her lap. After a few minutes of freaking out Riley sat down on Ellie's other side. "You freaked out more than I did."

"Dying's easy the hard part is watching people die." Riley said taking Ellie's hand in her own and Alec placed his hand on her shoulder.

Ellie pulled the pistol from her back and put it in her lap staring down at it. None of them spoke, but they could all see the want to do it. Although both Alec and Riley were against the idea neither of them had been through anything like this and couldn't imagine whether they would do it or not.

In the end Ellie didn't instead opting to throw the pistol against the wall. "Promise me you two will go on the trip." Ellie said looking at them.

"Ellie." Alec said.

"No, promise me that both of you will go on this trip even without you." Ellie gave them both a stern look. "Promise me."

"Promise." Alec and Riley said in unison.

"Look you guys should get going stay on plan." Ellie said, but neither of them moved. "Seriously."

"No one should have to go through this alone, you'd stick with us and we'll stick with you." Riley said determination in her eyes. "We're in this to the bitter end all of us."

"Thanks." Ellie said gratefully.

So they waited through the first day, then the next, then the next, and the next. The fifth day was when they decided something weird was going on. "What the heck." Riley said looking at the bite. "You're definitely infected, but you're fine."

"Maybe it's slow acting." Ellie suggested.

"No way the slowest take over I've ever seen took three days and even by then the guy was already growing fungus." Riley said shaking her head.

"I think you're immune Ellie." Alec said. "I know it sounds stupid, but there's no other way to explain it."

"What do we do?" Ellie asked looking at the bite mark. The skin had clearly been broken and it was starting to scab over.

"Well if we tell the government they'll call us crazy, test us, and kill you Ellie. No one at the village has the experience to handle this. I don't know who we can trust with this information; it's not like adults have done such a great job with the world." Alec racked his brain trying to figure it out; what could they do.

"Why do we need do anything?" Riley asked. "We have a plan and nothing's wrong with it. This is a miracle and we should take it at face value." Riley saw the looks of concern they had. "Worst case scenario the world's the same as it is now. We might even find someone who can do something about this. I vote we go on our trip."

Alec looked between Ellie and Riley. "Me too." He looked at Ellie who was still uncertain. "It's your call Ellie if you want to look for someone then I'll help, but whose going to listen to us? Anyone we tell would only put a bullet in our heads."

"Yeah you're right." Ellie clenched her fist. "We suffered plenty too I think we deserve our road trip." Ellie stood and retrieved her pistol.

"Wait a second show the bite." Riley said grabbing the camera. Ellie rolled up her sleeve and threw the rocker sign with her other hand sticking out her tongue. "That's a good one." Alec put a date on it and wrote a brief description on the white part of the picture before handing it off to Ellie who stuck it in the scrap book.

"Ellie the Immune has a nice ring to it." Alec said.

"Alec the sociopath." Ellie countered.

"Why am I the only one without a nickname?" Riley asked shaking her head.

"Let's just get moving Niagara Falls is a couple weeks off." Alec said. They continued down the road excitedly chatting and making jokes. "If we continue down this road then we should reach the next Saturday before next week, and after that it's another week to Niagara Falls.

That was how they continued each day covering as much ground as they could. The conditions definitely could have been better, but there was nothing too serious a problem to deal with.

"What is that?" Ellie asked one day seeing a gigantic ball in the distance.

"The world's largest ball of twine." Alec said checking a brochure they had picked up at the last rest stop.

"Oh we should go." Ellie said excitedly.

"That's such a lame thing to do." Riley said shaking her head.

"It's only a couple miles out of the way come on."

Once their they did a few poses pretending to hold the ball. "Everyone's done this stuff before." Ellie said upset at not having an original photo.

"No one's ever pushed it away." Alec recommended.

"You don't think?" Ellie asked turning to look at Riley who seemed just as excited. "Okay come on let me set up the camera."

After a few good pushes it started rolling and they had no power to stop it. "Look at it go!" Riley said clapping her hands together. "Whoo!" Ellie flashed a photo with the three of them watching the ball roll away in the distance. "Alright let's go."

"Yeah okay." Ellie said.

They continued on their way.

Finally after a straight six days of walking they made it to the city that Alec had told of. "Government." Alec said with a sigh. "I didn't know they had a quarantine zone here."

"How are we going to get around them?" Riley asked. "Can we go around?"

"No." Alec said checking the map. There's a river blocking us on both sides and the only way to Niagara falls is straight through."

"How are we going to sneak by them?" Ellie asked knowing that if they tried to go through they would be tested and they would find out about Ellie's infection. Knowing the military they would shoot first and ask questions later.

"Should we just skip it?" Riley asked.

"No way." Alec said shaking his head. "I refuse. There was a man hole cover a while back we could use that and sneak through the sewers to the other side."

"I don't know." Riley said.

"Come on Riley, what if there's military at the next spot or the next spot we need to find ways around them." Ellie said encouragingly. She still looked hesitant about the whole thing. "I bet a Firefly would do it."

"Oh that's so unfair." Riley said, but Ellie stood by what she said. "Oh fine."

They snuck back to the man hole cover and pried it open. Ellie snapped a picture. "Really?" Riley asked.

"I want to remember what if I get amnesia or Alzheimer?" Ellie asked.

"You survived the most deadly virus to ever sweep humanity and you're worried about Alzheimer's." Alec said shaking his head and beginning down the ladder. "You should be more concerned about the fungus sprouting and you not dying." For some reason Ellie could swear she had heard a tinge of bitterness in his voice, but she dismissed it.

"Oh my god could that happen?" Ellie asked, but Alec had already descended. "Riley?" Riley grabbed the camera and took a picture of Ellie's rather terrified expression.

"To remember you by." Riley said waving the picture and handing it to Ellie before starting down the ladder.

"Hey seriously could that happen; this isn't funny." Nonetheless Ellie stuck the picture in the book and decided to glue it in later. "Seriously I'm freaking out here." She slid the man hole cover back into place before following them down.

The pair was waiting at the bottom of the ladder laughing. "Oh Ellie don't worry I'm sure it won't happen." Riley said hugging her close. "You feel kind of spongy."

"Ah!" Ellie yelled feeling the spot Riley had touched only to come back with nothing. "Real mature."

"Oh I'm sorry Ellie." Riley gave her a quick kiss on the cheek, but Ellie was in no mood. "Come on it was kind of funny."

"Alright maybe just a little." Ellie admitted. "Could it happen though?"

"If it could then it would have already." Alec said dismissively.

The sound of a bottle shattering suddenly filled their ears. "What the heck?" Riley said turning around and waving the flashlight in the darkness.

"Damn it Joel." someone female by the sound of the voice said.

"Whose there!" Alec and Ellie immediately demanded pulling their pistols Riley doing the same.

"Don't shoot." A large burly man stood holding his hands up.

"Where's your partner?" Alec asked seeing no woman.

"Right here." she stood up in the same position. "What are you kids doing down here this is a smuggler route."

"Well what are you doing here?" Ellie asked.

"We're smugglers kid." the woman said. "My name's Tess that's Joel we're partners."

"Don't talk." Alec said. "You're not with the military?" They shook their heads. "And if you wanted to you could have killed us by now too, so you're not hostile." Alec had seen the Molotov and the hidden pistols the second they stood up. He holstered his pistol and motioned for Ellie and Riley to do the same. "How long have you been there for?"

"We came down a few minutes before you did." Joel said. "Looks like you kids got somewhere to be."

"Yeah we're on a trip." Alec said. Ellie and Riley had long since agreed that Alec was best to handle their encounters with strangers since he wasn't scared and capable of calm decision making. "We're just moving through we don't want any trouble."

"Us either." Tess said seemingly glad they wouldn't have to shoot the kids. She looked over at Joel and smiled. "And here I thought they were sent to kill us."

"Who would try to kill you?" Ellie asked.

"Why were you worried about fungus sprouting from your body?" Tess countered.

"Let's agree to just keep our stories to ourselves." Alec said and they nodded.

They walked in silence through the tunnel for a while. Surprisingly it was Joel who broke the silence. "Where you kids heading?" he asked.

"Niagara falls." Ellie answered.

"Hey, us too." Tess said. "Is there any particular reason?"

"Pleasure." Alec said.

"Hey do either of you know where the Fireflies are?" Riley asked thinking both of them looked well-traveled.

"Yeah reckon we know a couple." Joel said. "Back in Boston."

Alec took a mental note of that for Riley's sake. "Where are you kids from?" Tess asked.

"New York." Riley said thinking them not so bad if they knew Fireflies.

"Oh you're from that colony?" Tess asked.

They could guess which one Tess was speaking of and Ellie shivered. "No, a different one." Alec covered immediately. "What kind of business are you on?"

"Smugglers smuggle things." Tess said and Alec rolled his eyes.

They continued in silence coming out the other end of the tunnel without incident. They climbed to the top and reappeared in a forest area. "Why would they have plumbing out here?" Riley asked

"This used to be an escape tunnel in case the city went up in flames. Not too many people know about it though." Tess said sliding the cover back into place.

"I think we should set up camp." Liam said to Ellie and Riley. He didn't expect Joel or Tess to even stick around, and he certainly didn't expect them to chime in.

"We could still get a few miles in before dark." Tess said. "We should keep going."

"Oh." Alec didn't expect any contradiction or question. Although he wasn't the official leader he was the leading authority on survival in their trio. He looked over at Ellie and Riley. They seemed ready to walk, but he knew if he decided to stay here then they would do so. "Yeah that's a good idea."

They followed Tess and Joel who seemed to know the route better than they did even pointing out streams and edible foods even Alec didn't know of. The five finally came to a rest an hour later in a nice flat clearing. Ellie found herself replaced by Tess who cooked the food, but Ellie happily supplied some stuff to add.

"Hope you like it one of us had to learn to cook and since Joel over there could burn water it was me." Tess said spooning them some of the cooked meat and vegetables onto their plates. Ellie and Riley were sitting with Tess; Alec was with Joel on the other side of the fire. "How did you two end up in a place like this?"

"We wanted to travel." Ellie said as if it was the simplest thing in the world. "Left the village, found a map, made a plan, set off."

"I know that traveling might seem like a romantic idea, but it's a big and dangerous world out there especially for kids. You three would be a lot better off heading back to your village." Tess said.

"Not having this discussion with someone we just met." Riley said shaking her head Ellie having the same offended reaction. "We've been handling ourselves pretty well over these last few months, admittedly there have been some close calls, but we pull through. We always have and we always will."

"Just hear me out." Tess said, but Riley and Ellie were both offended enough to drag their sleeping bags away and go to sleep.

Alec was having a different discussion with Joel. "Two pretty girls like that and you aren't together with either of them?" Joel asked in disbelief.

"Not from lack of trying with the red head, but they're like this now." Alec crossed his fingers.

"Now?"

"I kind of screwed up my shot and she went the other way." Alec sipped his water and took a glance over at Ellie and Riley who had moved their sleeping bags. "Looks like your business partner pissed off my friends."

"Looks like." Joel said.

"I better hit the hay too, nice talking to you Joel." Alec walked over to where Ellie and Riley had gone to sleep and put down his own sleeping bag quickly following suit.

Joel and Tess decided to come along with the trio and since they knew the way better there was no reason to object.

They continued the path Alec and Joel ahead of Tess, Riley, and Ellie having already felt the tension. Tess was the one who tried to be the bigger person, and this was good because neither Riley or Ellie intended to do so. "I get that I might have been a bit out of line."

"More than a bit." Ellie said immediately. "We're not helpless, and we don't appreciate you treating us like it. We've handled our share of infected and even had to kill a few people."

Tess pursed her lips. "You know I remember a time when a sentence like that would shock anyone. I was fifteen when it all started. I remember the first time I ever held a gun, and I had to use it to shoot my brother nonetheless. Of course back then something like that wasn't as common as it is now. Really freaked me out, and every time I hold a gun I flash back to that moment to remind me things have to get done to survive. I get that you three have probably seen a lot of terrible things, and it's made you tuff, it's just that I've got this thing. I wish kids could just be kids again, and that they would learn the alphabet before they learned to hold a gun."

Ellie and Riley were speechless. Neither of them had ever considered anything else, and they had never met anyone who showed genuine concern for kids. "Sorry." Riley said finally finding her voice.

"It's okay just an old woman's dream I guess." Tess said.

"What if it happened?" Ellie asked. "You got the world you wanted back I mean."

"Then I'd have that one with his pants around his ankles so fast that I'd be pregnant before he knew what just happened." Tess smiled in a somewhat shy manor something that they had thought impossible from someone who gave off the aura of someone who had crawled to hell and back several times. "I always wanted kids, but it'd be stupid to bring one into this world."

"Maybe someday." Riley said.

"Hopefully someday soon because I only got fifteen years left give or take a few." Tess said referring to her reproductive clock ticking away.

Ellie wondered whether to come clean about her immunity about her possibly being humanities only chance. She decided against it if she did tell them there was little chance they would believe her and even if they did believer her there was a good chance she would spend her life being poked and prodded in a lab somewhere.

"Sounds nice it sounds really nice." Riley said.

"Yeah." Ellie said pressing her hand to her own stomach and looking down. "I'd want to raise my kids in a place like that."

"You want kids?" Riley asked.

"Maybe." Ellie said uncertainly.

"Hmm." Riley said knowing that as it stood even if she wanted them right now Riley wouldn't be able to provide that service.

"Looks like you girls made up." Alec said walking over to them. "I'm glad since me and Joel are already such great buddies."

"Joel gets along with anyone who listens to his stories about his time in Texas." Tess said with a laugh. "Come on boys try to keep uo the girls and I can't wait for you slowpokes anymore." Tess, Riley, and Ellie ran up ahead leaving Joel and Alec to play catch up.

They spent the next few days like that; trading stories, talking about useless things, and teaching eachother skills.

"We should be close enough to hear it now." Joel said stopping in his tracks and listening intently the others opting to do the same. There was a low sounding roaring that was mysteriously close to a Bloater's roar, but the distinct bubbling of water set it apart.

"Come on!" Ellie said running ahead the others quickly catching up.

A mile later they saw the source of the roaring. Gigantic falls letting off thousands of gallons of water per hour and doing it with a mighty roar. "Whoa." Once again that simple word described how they all felt.

"Never gets old." Tess said shaking her head. "This is where we part ways kiddos, are business is about a hundred more miles in that direction."

"Hold on just one picture please." Ellie pleaded holding up the camera.

"Well I don't know I would need to get my hair done and my makeup's a mess." Tess would have kept going for a few minutes, but the pleading look Ellie gave was too good. "Of course. Joel get your Texas sized ass over here."

While Ellie set up the camera on its tripod Alec and Riley got into funny poses while Joel and Tessa stood side by side rolling their eyes. After setting the timer Ellie joined the picture squatting down and pulling her pistol pointing it straight at the camera. Alec and Riley were in similar positions except pointing in opposite directions.

A particularly violent spray of water launched up higher than the others and completely soaked them. The picture went off with all of the completely soaked and nearly dying from laughter.

After that Joel and Tess took off with a promise to write leaving the trio to find a way to dry off. Luckily being in Niagara falls towels weren't hard to come by. They picked the largest gift shop in the area and took it as their own intent to explore.

There was a large metal working machine in the back used to carve special requests. "Can you work that thing?" Riley asked looking at Alec.

"Got a lot of time to learn." Alec said.

The letters for the machine were scattered all over the ground and they picked up just enough to imprint their names. A few dozen failed attempts later they all had key chains with their name's and Niagara Falls Gift Shop engraved on it.

After a few more pictures using store items as props they calmed down. Ellie got to work putting all the pictures in an actual scrap book they had found. Alec wrote a brief description of their journey so far on each page. Riley drew a few scenes that they hadn't gotten pictures of as well as a sketch of the five of them watching the water fall over head, the trio in the forest, and a squirrel which they had regretted not capturing on picture.

"Alright when do you girls want to set out again?" Alec asked.

"Let's spend the rest of the week here. Recharge our batteries then head back." Ellie said.

Once the week ended they continued their trek seeing the world's largest thermometer, giant rubber band balls, the Roswell landing sight, the slopes, the rocky mountains, the Vegas Strip still glamorous even without the lights, and yellow stone national park.

They had met interesting people some crazy, others not, and all practically all of them tried to kill them. They made friends as well as enemies. One survivor that stood out was a man named Bill who had cleared out a large chunk of town all on his own. He wanted them nowhere around him and had nearly killed them driving them out. They did find an interesting comic book though as well as a dirty magazine they had an interesting conversation over.

"My god how would you even walk around with that thing?" Ellie asked looking at the buff black man who stood holding his rather large package.

"Hey is yours anything like that?" Riley asked turning to Alec who took a brief glance.

"Mine's a little bigger." Alec said with a completely serious expression. They stared at him with wide eyes, but from his expression they couldn't tell whether or not he was joking. From any other boy they would have thought nothing of it, but with Alec it was hard to tell. For a while after that they tried to sneak a glance at his package, but he was very good at hiding it.

At each site they collected momentous that they stored in a tin they often argued over and pictures that they stuck in the scrap book. Inside their tins were their key chains, a really cool rock from yellow stone, a light from the Vegas sign (they also had a picture of Alec dangling for his life from when he went to retrieve it), a snow globe of the mountains, a solid crystal alien figurine, a Japanese knife that they had found and deemed "cool" enough for their collection, a giant rubber band neatly folded, a vial of mercury taken from the thermometer, a jar of melted snow they sealed with plastic so evaporation was impossible as well as an assortment of other objects like Alec's new wind up watch.

Their final intentional stop was San Francisco to see the Golden Gate Bridge, and snag the best souvenir they could find.

They were simply a day away and the air was practically electric among the trio as they walked. They would be there by night fall and Alec would wake them up extra early to witness the famous sunrise seen depicted in so many post cards.

Looking back it was miraculous that they had gone as long as they did with only minor injuries and only occasional swarm of infected. It was complete luck that had brought them this far; for that they would always be grateful.

Ellie was frankly pleased with their situation. Alec had tried multiple advances over their journey, but Ellie found she couldn't summon up the spark she used to feel. Lately he seemed to be in acceptance of the situation and had stopped trying. He was just a very good friend as opposed to Riley who Ellie thought she would one day give her virginity to.

They stumbled through town dead on their feet from the constant walking. Alec reached for the of a home they random selected only for it to be kicked open and before anyone could react a shot gun was pressed in his stomach and fired off.

"Oh ... wow." Alec said slumping to the ground blood already coming up from mouth.

Riley and Ellie reacted immediately putting a bullet in the man's head. "Alec! Alec!" Ellie screamed pressing her hands tightly to the wound. Blood soon covered her hands, but that mattered little to her right now. "Go inside look for towels or something!" Riley responded immediately running inside to look for something.

She came back out with all the towels she could find and a bucket of water. Ellie took charge of the situation dipping the towels in the water and using them to wipe away the blood. "There's too much blood we need to stop the blooding." Riley said her eyes filled with crimson.

"How?" Ellie asked watching as the color drained from Alec's face and he seemed to slip away. "Alec! Hold on god damn it!" She looked at Riley who seemed hesitant. "Whatever it is we need to do it."

"Yeah okay." Riley pulled out her knife. "I need to get the bullet out first and that's going to hurt a lot."

"Ellie." Alec suddenly said his hand reaching up as if to look for her.

"I'm right here Alec don't worry I'm not going anywhere." Ellie held onto his hand as tightly as she could manage as if she let go he would drift off into the afterlife. "Do it." Riley nodded before sticking her hand in the flesh.

"Gah!" Alec screamed. It was a scream of primal fury one of animalistic pain.

"Come on Alec you're gonna have to help me here." Riley said not feeling or seeing the bullet.

"Up! Oh god damn it up!" Alec screamed his other hand slamming against the concrete.

"Got it!" Riley said triumphantly holding the bullet in the air. She dropped it before beginning on the stitches. Without proper medical gear or time to sterilize they had to make use with a needle and pieces of wire they had on hand.

A few minutes later Alec was unconscious his wound clean and not bleeding. His face was incredibly pale, but they hoped that would change soon. "Do you think there are more of him?" Ellie asked.

"No, this place looks pretty lived in." Riley said looking around. "Now that he's not bleeding we'll have to worry about infection. We didn't exactly have clean objects."

"As long as he's not dying now." Ellie said shakily. She hadn't let go of Alec's hand since they had entered the home putting him on the bed. Riley was in the room, but not next to the bed. "Just as long as he's alive."

Riley nodded before leaving the room.

Days passed without Alec waking up. The wound was black and swollen indicating a major infection and with no anti-biotic to treat they were left worrying. Ellie refused to leave his side even when Riley insisted that she herself needed to sleep.

Ellie insisted she did sleep, but she wasn't sure either way she always felt exhausted all the time. "How's he doing?" Riley asked walking in.

"How does he look?" Ellie said testily. She had been snappy at Riley even going so far as accusing her of hoarding rations once.

"Not much better." Riley admitted. "I'm gonna go out hunting in a few hours he's going to need actual food to get better."

"Then go." Ellie said angrily.

"Yeah." Riley left shaking her head.

Ellie had thought that she had left all these feelings behind that they were gone, but sitting here next to him worrying about him brought all of them rushing back with a vengeance. "Ellie." Alec said blinking himself awake and trying to sit up. He failed.

"Don't try to sit up you're hurt real bad."

"I can feel it." Alec was breathing hard again as if speaking was taking too much out of him. "Where's Riley?"

"She's out hunting." Ellie said. "Do you think you can drink something?"

"I don't think I'm gonna be around that long." Alec said shivering. He seemed on the verge of fading away. He squeezed Ellie's hand in his own. "Whose hand is this?"

"It's mine." Ellie said gulping. "I'm so sorry I thought that I didn't love you anymore, but now I know I do. A lot more than I love Riley."

"No you don't Ellie." Alec was beginning to fade. "You love Riley you always have."

"No I love you I always have and I always will!" Ellie exclaimed clutching his hand in a vice grip. She pressed her lips to his own and she could feel that same magic that she did before.

"That's a pretty crappy thing to do." Alec said with a laugh as she pulled back. "I thought I had finally gotten over you and then you pull this."

"You don't ever have to get over me again Alec I swear." Ellie said desperately.

Finally his head dropped and he fell back into a fever induced sleep.

Ellie couldn't stop shaking.

Riley was on another trek through the town the fifth one in these past few days. She hadn't found any wild game since for some reason none of them seemed brave enough to come into town.

Infected were relatively scarce other than the occasional clicker another odd occurrence. That meant something or someone had to be taking care of them. It was possible that it had been that man, but it was unlikely.

She walked by what looked like a pharmacy arrow drawn. It looked cleaned out, but one could never be too sure there could be some forgotten pills or medicine under a cabinet or on a high shelf.

The door which she has to assume had been filled with glass before was empty, so she crept inside without use of her lock picks. Many people questioned her preference for lock picks rather than simply kicking open the door or shivving it open, but she found lock picks more preferable. It seemed a more romantic way to do things."

She dropped to her stomach looking and finding nothing except for rather disgusting half eaten food. The shelves provided nothing more than dust. "God damn it." Riley said wiping her hands. She looked up and saw a white bottle on the highest shelf of a cabinet. In bold black letters she could just make out the words antibiotics printed on the label. "Thank god."

She pulled a drawer out of the cabinet and stepped on it climbing up. The cabinet was taller than she would have normally climbed, but Alec was a very good friend. She stretched out her fingers barely scratching the bottle's surface.

The shelf she was currently standing on gave away and in panic she grabbed onto the cabinet trying to keep balance. Instead she brought down the entire cabinet with her.

It fell with a thunk pinning Riley from the waist down. "Ah, eh!" Riley struggled, but with her waist pinned she couldn't really put her back into. "Calm down Riley, Ellie will come looking and help get this off of me." Riley wondered if that was true. Would Ellie leave Alec's side to come and look, or just feed him with their rations which could last another week with how little Alec and Ellie ate by which time Riley would be dead.

Through the fall Riley had managed to hold onto the bottle. She shook it and heard it was full; the bottle seal hadn't been been broken.

"Shit." Riley said squeezing it tightly in hand.

Ellie checked Alec's watch again. She had wound it just that morning, and according to it, Riley had been gone for just over eight hours. "Where are you Riley?" Ellie asked both anger and concern in her voice. "I swear if you left."

The only noise between them was Alec's shallow breathing. Ellie was nervously tapping her foot trying to remain calm, but that was hard to do under the circumstances. She would have to go out and look for Riley; Alec wasn't going anywhere and Riley could be hurt or in trouble.

"I'll be right back Alec." Ellie said pressing a cool cloth soaked in water to his forehead. She placed a chaste kiss on his lips and ran a hand through his chestnut locks before leaving her bow drawn. Just as she was in the door way she turned back staring at Alec's crotch.

There was a chance that she would die out there, and even if she didn't this might be her only chance to see it before they had sex. Deciding to risk it she walked over and undid the button and zipper on his pants. With trembling hands she pulled down his boxers and nearly cried out in terror. "Oh my god; how do you pee?" Ellie asked, and of course he didn't respond. "That's not even funny." She put it away and finally left intent to find Riley and then tell her their suspicions were confirmed.

It was incredibly quiet in the town except for the sound of Ellie herself walking through. Her breath hitched at every sudden movement expecting a runner or clicker to pop out, but none did. The ground began to rumble and Ellie looked around frantically looking for the source of the noise.

A few miles away a pair of head lights rumbled forward approaching faster than Ellie would have liked. She still had time to duck behind a building watching as the truck came to a halt and several men hopped out. "Hey I could of sworn I saw a girl here she was in the head lights." one of them said looking around.

"Whatever let's just get back to that black girl we found earlier she'll be a fun one." the one in an orange coat said shaking his head.

Ellie nearly attacked them right then and there, but she had spent more than enough time with Alec to know that was more than stupid. The only chance she would have at saving Riley was following them, and hoping she got there before they could do anything.

The truck led her to a building with boarded up windows covered in graffiti. From inside she could hear screams, cheers, and see the subtle glow of barrel fires. Ellie checked her supply on bullets, it wasn't high, but if she handled things correctly it should be more than enough.

There were two men at the door who hadn't yet seen her. Both of them looked bored and annoyed that they weren't inside where the real fun seemed to be going on. These people must have been the ones keeping out the infected and killing off wild game.

Using a tactic that Joel and Tess taught her she grabbed a bottle smashing it against the ground. "What the hell?" one of them asked. "What do you think it was?"

"Go check it out dumbass." the other said roughly shoving him.

"Yeah alright." He walked over to Ellie's hiding place behind the road block.

With the cover of darkness on her side it was easy for Ellie to strangle the man who expecting a clicker or gun to the face didn't have much time to fight back. The world had definitely toughened Ellie, and her body as well allowing her the strength to kill a grown man at only fourteen. "Hey Adam, you okay over there?" the other guard asked seeing his partner hadn't returned for an unnerving amount of time.

His life was ended swiftly with a stab to the throat and a mist of blood. "Alright." Ellie said wiping the blade on her pant leg and continuing inside.

She took out guard after guard slowly painstakingly slowly making her way through the building. Finally she came to a room where screams of help and desperation came. With a mighty kick she brought the door down. Inside were multiple women and young girls that Ellie let free one by one, but Riley was not there.

"God damn it! Where is she?" Ellie asked.

"The black girl?" one of them asked.

"Yeah her!" Ellie said both eager and nervous.

"They took her to the bang room."

Ellie felt rage burning deep in the pit of her stomach rage that needed to be satisfied right now. She put a bullet in the brain of the men who tried to stop her and a knife into the door opening it. A man was on top of a girl who was kicking and screaming. Without even registering the action Ellie shot him, and tossed the body aside.

"Who are you?" Ellie asked seeing although this girl fit Riley's description she definitely wasn't Riley.

"Who are you?" she asked shocked by her sudden salvation.

"Get out of here." Ellie said. She ran off without another word. Ellie walked down the stairs leaving the building without finding Riley, but she did snag the keys to the truck that was still in front of the building. "RILEY! RILEY!" Ellie knew it was idiotic, but at this point screaming was all she had left. There was no response.

She got in the truck and drove slowly block by block screaming Riley's name. After an hour of driving she finally heard a response. It was weak, but it was definitely there. "Ellie." It was almost a moan, but it was definitely Riley. "Help over here."

Ellie found her soon after pinned under a cabinet. "How does something like this even happen?" Ellie asked on the verge of laughing.

"Shut up I was getting medicine for Alec." Riley said holding up the bottle of pills. "Get me out of here please."

"Yeah." Ellie said grabbing the edge of the cabinet. With great effort they pushed it into an upright standing position, but Riley made no move to get up. "Come on Riley Alec needs this medicine."

"I can't move Ellie." Riley said crossing her arms. Ellie nearly died right there. "Just give me a hand will you?"

"Yeah alright." Ellie scooped up Riley and with some effort carried her over to the truck. As they drove Ellie decided to talk to Riley about their relationship. "Riley?" She turned to look to her. "It's about our relationship. Is it okay if we take a break?"

"Because I was late?" Riley asked in disbelief.

"No, but seeing Alec like that it brought up all of these emotions, and I need to figure them out." Ellie didn't dare to look Riley in the eye.

"Just tell me how big was it?" Riley asked. They both knew what she was referring to.

"I don't know what you're talking about." Ellie tried to deny.

"Bullshit, you're telling me that all that time and you didn't take one peak." Ellie had a bad poker face. "Just tell me when to stop." She moved her hands away from one another when she passed a certain point she gave Ellie a look of disbelief.

"He's really gifted." Ellie said.

"That's not gifted that's monstrous. Do you think you could take something like that?" Riley asked. Ellie shrugged.

"I'm not sure Riley, but I want to sort out my emotions." Ellie refused to talk about the subject further and Riley was miffed, so she stayed silence.

They made it back to the house, but Alec wasn't in the bed where Ellie had left him. "What the hell?" Ellie asked looking around.

"The back doors open." Riley said.

"Where could he have gone?" Ellie asked.

"He's got to be delirious; where would Liam go half asleep and practically dead in intense pain?"

"What did we come here for?" It dawned on Ellie and Riley at the same moment. They drove quickly the sunset fast approaching.

Sure enough there he was standing on the rocks the waves crashing below him. "Did we make it?" he asked without turning around. The doubted he knew they were there.

"We did." Ellie said standing next to him.

"I feel like shit." Alec said.

"Yeah walking a few miles with a hole in your stomach will do that to you." Ellie said with a smile and shaking her head. Even infection riddled and in intense pain Alec still managed to impress. "Come on take these." She handed him the written dose as well as a canteen with water. "Feel better?"

"Not at all." Alec shook his head and they laughed.

After getting a quick picture of the bridge with the sun set perfectly in the view. It was their best picture yet with more emotion behind it than any other.

"You know when it happens I hope I get to relive this one when it happens." Alec said.

"When what happens?" Riley asked thinking he was hallucinating.

"My Alzheimers." Alec said nonchalantly. With the pain killers they had mixed in with the antibiotics it didn't seem like he could care.

"What?" Ellie asked shocked. She had heard resentment in Alec's voice back before niagara falls. She had dismissed his disease with a joke, but for him it was a real possibility. "How long do you have?"

"Anywhere from tomorrow until I'm sixty. If it doesn't happen between then, then it won't happen at all, so fingers crossed." Alec was now speaking sarcastically. "That's a hell of a long time for your stomach to be in knots."

"Alec are you serious?" Riley asked. Even in his half drugged half pained wracked state he seemed serious.

"Sucks pretty bad." Alec nodded. "I think I'm going to pass out now." He fell straight forward, and nearly fell into the water barely caught by Ellie and Riley.

After that day Alec had more and more states of lucidity that he spent working on the truck. Riley spent the day siphoning gas from cars intending to keep their truck well stocked. Ellie kept an eye on Alec making sure he didn't wander off again. If he happened to tire himself out which happened often she would assist him back to bed. A less often occurrence was him passing out, but nonetheless they had fashioned a stretcher to use when it did happen.

"It looks all healed up." Ellie said looking at the wound which had no swelling and was back to Alec's healthy tan. The stiches had been removed while Alec was in one of his fever sleeps, and although he screamed in pain during his sleep he had no memory of the amount. Now that she had a chance to look Ellie noticed Alec had a rather chiseled body. A thin layer of fat was hiding his abs, but if she pressed her hand to it then she could feel what seemed like rocks underneath.

His chest was sculpted and Ellie already knew what was underneath that zipper of his. She had the opposite worry that some girls had worrying that it was going to be small. No she was feared it might be too big which was a rare fear to have.

"Enjoying yourself there?" Alec asked.

Ellie hadn't even realized how long she had been feeling up his stomach, or her lingering glances at his crotch. She looked up at him blushing beat red, but she didn't pull away, back up, or jump back. Instead she opted to cope one last feel before returning to her standing position. "These really are nice to the touch." It was lame, and she knew it, but it was the best she could come up with and she said it with a wink.

Instead of responding positively like she had thought he would pursed his lips before helping him to her feet. "No response I'd think that you'd say something cocky." Ellie was told her form of flirting was far too forward.

"Don't say things like that Ellie." Alec said rubbing his eyes.

"What's wrong?" Ellie asked wondering if she had somehow offended him. Maybe he was uncomfortable with such direct sexual innuendo. "I kind of broke it off with Riley if that's what's bothering you."

"You shouldn't have done that Ellie." Alec said shaking his head. "You love Riley more than anyone else."

"No I don't." Ellie said shaking her head. "I love you. I thought that I didn't for a while there, but when I saw you get shot like you did I knew I couldn't ever live without you. I love you."

"Not like you think you do." Alec's throat was dry he couldn't believe he was saying this, but to save Ellie's feelings as well as his own he needed to.

"Don't tell me how I feel!" Ellie angrily hit him in the chest.

"If you can kiss me and look me in the eye, and honestly tell me it meant something then I'll believe you." Alec cupped her face in his hands and leaned forward pressing their lips together.

Ellie fought to feel something she really did hoping that the feelings that she had for Alec were real that she was right. There was no spark or electrically charged feeling like there had been. He pulled away and looked her in the eyes. "Well?" Regretfully she shook her head. "I was afraid of that." Alec dropped his hands and took a step back turning on his heel most likely to lose himself working on the truck.

Ellie sat on the couch of the home feeling embarrassed, ashamed, and a variety of other emotions. Most of all she regretted breaking things off with Riley, but instead of facing up to it she sat there allowing them to rage around her stomach making it queasy.

A few hours later Riley walked in sitting on the opposite ends of the couch. "I messed up." Ellie said simply letting out a long breath.

"Yeah I can tell." Riley was genuinely hurt when Ellie had cut things off. Although Ellie hadn't been sure Riley knew most definitely that she loved her.

"I really thought I loved him though." Ellie said shaking her head. "I don't understand why though."

"Alec told me while we were working on the truck. Something about how maternal instinct, combined with worry, the injury of a friend, and a lot of other psychological mumbo jumbo I couldn't understand. It made you think you loved him when you were just worried."

"I guess a sociopath would know." Ellie gave a grim smile. She fumbled with her Walkman and played the one song she had. "Remember?"

"It's the first song we ever danced to." Riley said standing up. "How could I forget?"

"Do you still remember the dance?" Ellie stood and pressed herself to Riley who wrapped her arms around Ellie who allowed her head to lie on Riley's chest. They slowly rocked back and forth to the song holding each other tightly. "I'm sorry."

"I know." Riley pressed their foreheads and smiled at Ellie who smiled back a toothy grin. Unknown to them Alec took a picture of this romantic scene and stuck it in the scrap book.

The very next morning the trio stood around their truck. "Alright here I come." Ellie said setting the familiar timer and then running into her spot with Alec's arm around her shoulder and Riley's around her waist.

Alec was holding the magnum shot gun bullet that had done the damage as well as the bottle of antibiotics that had saved his life both of which was added to their collection. "Cheese." the three of them said just as the flash went off.

Their adventure continued backtracking back to their starting point. They visited more locations, met more people, even defeated their first bloater (a picture of them by the corpse was in the scrap book), escaped cannibals, and added numerous other pictures and souvenirs to their collection.

Finally came the day they both dreaded and looked forward to. The final day of their journey, their final stop had finally come. Fenway Park stood in all of its faded glory just as Alec had predicted their cross country tour had taken just over a year. Alec who the girls had taught how to drive put the truck into park and took the keys from the ignition.

"We're here." Alec said sitting back.

"Yup." Ellie took a look outside the window. There was most likely a gift shop inside where after some scrounging they would find a key chain, or a mini bat, or if they were really lucky they might find a baseball on the field. All the work and adventure that had gone into their collection and scrap book would end right here.

"I don't want it to end." Riley said.

"Me either." Ellie said.

"You two are overreacting." Alec said fiercely. "This adventure was a lot of fun, but we did it. We did what everyone did we couldn't, and saw so many things. There were so many people who called us crazy and tried to convince us to join them, but we survived. How many other people do you think could have done? We've probably seen more this year than anyone else ever will because we're the only one's brave enough. We're alive which means this isn't the end it's a new chapter and it starts with the end of this one."

"Don't cry because it's over smile because it happened." Ellie took her own advice and a smile broke on her face.

"Who said that?" Riley asked.

"Doctor Sues."

"Which tells us your reading level." Alec said with a laugh. They broke out in laughter before leaving the truck with the keys in the seat none of them caring if they ever saw it again.

It was easy enough to break into the stadium since no one had bothered with security in a very long time. They did find a gift shop which like so many others was practically full because people didn't bother with stuff like this when the world ended.

"No way." Ellie said looking at the top shelf.

"What is it?" Riley asked.

"It's a Babe Ruth Baseball used in a game." Ellie said.

"Whose Babe Ruth?" Alec asked.

"He's the best and first black baseball player." Riley said with a half grin. "Coincidence no?"

"You know what for the sake of our friendship I'm going to let that one go." Alec said. "Have we found our souvenir?"

"Yup." Ellie sad climbing up the shelves and grabbing the ball. "This completes the collection." Ellie marveled at the ball turning it over in her hands once she had smashed open the glass case.

"Hey!" someone shouted. They all froze. "Turn around slowly all of you!" It was a woman's voice, and when they turned around they saw a black woman who held up a machine gun. "Who sent you kids?"

"No one we didn't even know anyone was here." Alec said calmly.

"Yeah, you're telling me you up and walked into Firefly headquarters without knowing we were here. Do you think I'm some kind of idiot?" She was tense, her finger itchy for the trigger, and she was serious about wasting them with that gun.

Riley turned looking at Ellie and Alec shocked by this. A glance at Alec only gave her encouragement. "Ma'am I have wanted to be a Firefly since I knew about you. I would be honored if you would let me become a Firefly." Riley said excitedly. This was her new chapter, and it had come so easily as well.

"I don't suppose you have any proof." she said obviously not expecting any.

"Yeah." Riley sad reaching into her pocket. She pulled out her home made firefly pendant and handed it to the woman who glanced it over.

"You made this?" she asked looking it over. Riley nodded. "No."

"No?" Riley asked in disbelief.

"There's no way for me to know whether or not you are going to be dedicated to the cause. It was a nice little story though." She through the Firefly pendant on the ground. When Riley went to retrieve it she smashed it with her foot. "I don't appreciate people misrepresenting my Fireflies."

"Right." Riley said clenching her fist.

Alec and Ellie gave her sympathetic looks, but there was nothing they could do. Ellie went to give her a hug, but the woman (Marlene) grabbed her wrist. "What is this." Marlene said pulling up Ellie's sleeve. "You're bit!" She pointed her gun at Ellie then thought better of it.

"Wait, wait, wait! I've been bitten for a year I swear!" Ellie said not daring to move less Marlene decided to shoot.

"Yeah." Marlene said shaking her head. She pulled the pistol from Ellie's waist band tossing it to Riley who caught it clumsily. "Shoot her."

"What?" Riley asked.

"Shoot her. Prove to me you're a Firefly dedicated to the cause." Marlene looked dead serious. "Either you do it or I will."

"No!" Alec commanded. "She's immune and I can prove it." Marlene looked skeptical, but she allowed Alec to retrieve their precious scrap book from Ellie's pack. He flipped toward the beginning where the picture of Ellie throwing the rocker sign with her bite showing was. "We took this over a year ago four days after she got bitten."

"Impossible." Marlene said looking at the picture.

"It's true." Alec said turning to several other pages where Ellie's bite was shown. The ball of twine, the rubber band ball, the thermometer, the Hollywood sign, the Las Vegas sign, and various other pictures each dated and given a written description.

"I can't believe it." Marlene said looking at each picture thoughtfully as if waiting for something to disprove the pictures. Next Ellie handed her their souvenirs proving their visitation to each area. Marlene clutched the album to her chest tightly like she expected it to disintegrate, or for herself to wake up. "This is really happening isn't it?" They nodded. She pulled Ellie up and hugged her tightly. "Come on I've got some doctors you have to see." She walked down the hall practically strangling Ellie as they walked. Halfway down the hall she turned back to Riley and Alec who were stunned. "Come on kid we've got to get you a proper pendant."

"You mean I'm in?" Riley asked not believing it herself.

"Kid, you brought me the cure for the most deadly disease to ever strike mankind. You're gonna be in my chair one day." Riley followed Marlene, and Alec after picking up the pieces of the broken pendant followed since he had nothing better to do.

They got to the scientists who after presented with the evidence ran various tests on Ellie. "We need to remove the virus it will be the most efficient way to develop a cure." one of the scientists said.

"The virus grows around the brain though." Riley said looking between Ellie who was sedated on the couch and the doctor the latter seemed rather nervous. Riley, Alec, and Ellie pulled their pistols.

"You have got to see this from a different light. It is the whole world against the life of one girl." the doctor said.

"Who cares?" Alec asked. "The world has never done us any favors. We were born into this world and we'll die in it if we have to."

"One girl!" the doctor insisted.

"She's not one girl. She's Ellie, she's our friend, she's more than that to me, and you are not killing her! I don't care if I never become a Firefly I'd rather die than betray her." Riley said with steely conviction that Alec matched with little effort.

"Are you sure about that?" Marlene asked.

"Yes." Riley said.

"Find another way." Marlene said to her doctor.

"What?"

"Find another way; the world's lasted this long it'll last a bit longer." Marlene said.

"The only Firefly base with the equipment is in Salt Lake City, and it sure as hell isn't close! We don't even have a car!"

"We have a car." Alec said. "It's in the front."

"Load it up." Marlene ordered.

Marlene, Riley, and of course Ellie stood right in front of the truck which was being loaded up by lackeys. Alec stood across from them a smile on his face. "Are you sure you don't want to come Alec?" Riley asked.

"It won't be as much as fun without you." Ellie said. "They'll probably have medication for your condition in Salt Lake City."

"The Fireflies could always use a good man like you." Marlene said persuasively.

"No, one day my mind might start to regress, and I want to see a lot more before that happens. Going with you three means going on the same adventure; I want to go find a new one." Alec said smiling in a sad way.

"Here something to remember us by." Ellie said handing him the scrap book. "In case you ever need a reminder about your friends."

"I'll be sure I remember you two." Alec hugged Ellie then Riley. "You know what before I leave I think it's time I told you how I got this scar."

"Oh yes, I've been waiting for this since I saw that scar. How did it happen: in a mugging, a fight to the death over honor, or did the infected get you?" Riley asked expecting some serious epic story.

"Nothing quite so glamorous." Alec said threatening to laugh. "My little brother left his toy out and I tripped on the night stand." They gave him a blatant look. "I swear."

"You know what I don't think you could have told us a better story." Ellie said and Riley agreed. They piled into the truck and watched Alec in the rearview mirror become tinier and tinier. "You think he's gonna make it?"

"It's Alec, he could march into a shoot out with no weapons and come back with a smile on his face and bullets in his teeth." Riley was confident in this statement, and Ellie had no doubt that was exactly what would happen.

*10 YEARS LATER*

Ellie sighed drumming her hands as they took more blood samples. "God damn it." Ellie said with a sigh. This had become routine since they had found her blood was what caused the mutation. Some gene that was incredibly rare or something. They now used her blood to feed a new version of the cordyceps used for a cure.

"Almost done Ellie." one of the countless doctors who treated her said.

"Yeah yeah I've heard it all before." Ellie said rolling her eyes. "Riley!"

Riley as always had been assigned as Ellie's personal guard for the day. The two of them were inseparable, and with Riley's position in the Fireflies it was easy to arrange it so they were never apart.

They were close and married despite objections from many old fashion Fireflies. After all who would deny humanity's last hope anything she wanted.

"Hey Ellie how are you doing?" Riley asked squatting down next to her. "You look a little pale."

"Yeah having all the blood they can take from you without the risk of killing you can do that to a person." Ellie said eating the food they provided immediately afterward. She shooed away the doctor's nurses leaving the young lovers alone together. Ellie put a hand to her stomach and got a glassy look in her eyes. "I want a baby Riley." They had had this discussion many times before, but it always came to the same conclusion. Riley couldn't give Ellie a baby and even for the savior of the world a process like artificial insemination was far out of reach.

"Me too Ellie." Riley said squeezing her hand tightly in her own. "Me too."

"Have you made any progress on him?"

"Some." Riley admitted. "But there aren't any solid leads, and even if he is alive."

"He is." Ellie insisted.

"His brain could be Swiss cheese." They sat in silence for a while.

Neither of them had seen Alec in the past ten years. He simply refused to be found, but they had hope. There was a big part of them that just wanted to see their old friend. The second reason was they wanted to know he was okay because besides the last message over five years ago they had not heard from him at all. They were concerned that his mind had begun to deteriorate and he was just drifting in and out of lucidity.

"I bet it's not." Ellie said defiantly.

"I'm sure too." Riley said confidently. "We'll find him we just need a little more time. We know for a fact that the world isn't that big a place, and with the Fireflies' resources we'll find him. Besides he'll find us even if we don't find him."

"Yeah could you imagine?" Ellie asked trying to hold in giggles. "He'd seduce the guard if it was a girl, and get her to take her to us, or storm the place."

"He'd walk in with bullets holes in his shirt." Riley was almost there.

"And he'd just say hey like it was nothing!" They burst out in laughter then sighed leaning against one another. "We should have made him come; this was kind of an adventure right?"

"Not really. I've spent more time training with Marlene than on the field, and you've spent about the same amount of time in that chair. Alec would have hated this place, and I doubt he would have liked doctors telling him what to do for Alzheimer's."

"Still it would have been nice to have him along; just so we'd know he was okay." Ellie felt tired just as she always did after her blood being taken, and her arms started to drift closed. "Talk to you later." she said groggily.

It was another year before they received a solid lead about Alec's location. "How reliable is it?" Ellie asked Riley who stood in front of a map where Indianapolis was marked.

"It's from someone I went through training school with. She was sent to scout the place to see if it was worth trying to retake." Riley said. Now that the Fireflies had a proper army and supplies they were slowly retaking North America. The advance was especially slow, and they would not live to see it complete, but it was glorious to see the world reforming. Ellie hoped that Tess would realize her dream of having a child in a normal world. "Someone matching his description has been seen there."

"What do you mean matching his description?" Ellie asked thinking they had no idea what he looked like right now.

"His um a gentlemen's sword." Even now with all of the rather interesting experiences they had in the bedroom the thought of Alec's rather large member made them uncomfortable.

"Riley how could you tell people that?" Ellie asked shocked.

"In all fairness it was the only thing we had on his appearance." Riley said embarrassed. "Either way he's in Indianapolis, and we can be there after next week if we hurry."

"Will they let us out?" Ellie asked.

"Would they do anything anyway?" Riley was right Ellie could have shot someone in the head and she would have been forgiven.

"When are we going to go?"

"I'll have a truck ready by tomorrow morning."

The drive was familiar, and filled both of them with nostalgia. Neither of them had left Utah in years, and going on adventure after eleven years of choice captivity was definitely nice.

They arrived in Indianapolis where they found a small settlement. It was almost like a town, but just not quite there. According to the locals Alec had been the one to start this place unintentionally of course. Mostly he sat in his house at the edge of town maintaining defense. Although most were grateful to the man who brought them all this most people were slightly disturbed by Alec, and seemed to hope the up was there to cart him off.

Ellie rapped three times, then twice, then three times again. This was a secret knock that they had developed over their road trip to alert each other they were there.

When Alec answered Riley and Ellie nearly thought him Joel. The same beard, build, and muscles lined him. Even a flannel shirt, but now that they thought about it there was a good chance that was just a coincidence. "Riley Ellie?" Alec asked shocked.

"Yeah." Ellie said snapping out of her stupor. "Mind if we came in?"

"No not at all." Alec opened the door for them and allowed them inside. They plunked down on the truck him sitting in his chair. "What are you two doing here?"

"Glad to see you too." Riley said sarcastically. "Alec, we haven't seen you in five years what's been going on?"

"Well like I told you in my letters I explored Canada and then Mexico. After that I didn't have much to do, so I found Joel and Tess. We worked together for a really long time after that, and I guess I just forgot."

"Are they here?" Riley asked hoping to see some more friends.

"Well yes and no." Alec looked upset as if it brought up bad memory. "Joel isn't with us anymore." He bit his lower lip and the sadness came off of Ellie and Riley and waves.

"What about Tess?" Ellie asked.

"Out for the day." Alec said. Just as he said this a loud wailing resonated throughout the home. "Oh hold on." He stood and opened the door to a back room with Riley and Ellie following him. A small baby boy was in the crib wailing his lungs out. His hair was light brown, his skin tan, as far as they could tell he was healthy, and most easily the most beautiful baby they had ever seen. Alec picked him up and cradled him. Immediately he stopped crying sucking his thumb.

It was the most intimate they had ever seen Alec. "Is he yours?" It was a stupid question, but Riley couldn't help herself.

"Yeah." Alec said giving them a smile. "I don't even know who his mom is, but she knew me apparently. I can't really deny that he's mine though can I?" It was true Alec and the boy were nearly identical except for a few features that he must have inherited from his mother. "Sorry I haven't been able to keep in contact, but things have been pretty hectic."

It seemed as if fatherhood had softened Alec up some before he never would have said sorry. "Alec I'm back! I found some new clothes for J.J. ." When Tess walked into the room she dropped her bag. "Oh my god Ellie Riley how are you two?"

They hugged and had a brief reunion moment. "You look good Tess." Ellie said.

"Oh, but I feel old. Forty years old and thirty years in this world has taken its toll on this old woman." Tess said modestly.

"It doesn't show at all." Riley said.

"You two are too sweet if only this one complimented me like that." Tess elbowed Alec in the ribs and he mocked hurt. "It really is nice to see you girls."

"We're glad." Ellie said. "Have you heard about the Firefly Republic up in Utah? You two should head up there it would be a really nice place to raise J.J. ."

Ellie didn't mean to offend, but apparently that was exactly what she had done. Tess turned and Alec wrapped his arms around her. This was the first time Ellie noticed their body language; they were close much closer than friends. Tess despite being ten years older was in love with Alec, and Alec in love with her.

Riley looked as shocked as she felt. "Would you give us a minute?" Alec asked. Riley took J.J. from the crib before leaving with Ellie.

"What do you think's going on?" Riley asked rocking J.J. from side to side. He seemed to enjoy this a lot giggling loudly as she did so.

"I don't know." Ellie said playing a game of peekaboo with J.J. who immediately took to the game. The walls were very thin and allowed for them to hear nothing of Alec and Tess' discussion.

Finally after what seemed like hours they came out. "Could I talk to you?" Ellie and Riley entered the nursery leaving Tess to sit on the couch holding J.J. in her arms looking as if it was the last time she would ever see him.

"What is it?" Riley asked.

"I want you two to take J.J. ." Alec said.

"What? Ellie asked. "We couldn't do that he's your son."

"I'm asking you to." Alec clenched his knuckles. "J.J. doesn't have a future out here. I don't want him to end up a smuggler like me, or staying in a dead end town like this. If he went with you two stayed with you two as your son he could do something with his life. Or have a normal one like Tess and I have always wanted for him. She's told me stories about how kids would go to school, be safe, get jobs, be a part of something. You have no idea how much I want that for J.J. . If you take him back to Firefly Republic territory he can be free of the fear of the infection. You can immunize him and be safe."

"Why don't you come with us?" Ellie asked. "You and Tess. We can get you papers, and make you citizens and everything. We have all those things that Tess told us about: economy, stores, schools, people, communities, even police. You could come and make a normal family."

"People like Tess and I have no place in normal society Ellie. When the Fireflies achieve their dream there are going to people who can just go back to normal, but not me and not Tess. We can't survive as normal people anymore. I want different for him." Alec looked at them pleadingly. "Please. I want this for him and for me. I couldn't ask this if I didn't believe this was the absolute best thing for him."

"Alec." Riley said her voice trembling.

"Besides I couldn't stand it. What if my mind started fading while he needed me most? I'd hardly be a suitable father in that state would I?"

"We'll take him." Ellie said after a moment of silence. "If that's really what you want."

"It is." Alec said.

"Then okay." Ellie gave Alec then when they left the room Tess a hug. Ellie took J.J. from Tess' arms and Alec gave them a car seat. "Looks like we got the baby we wanted."

"Yeah, just didn't expect it like this." Riley said looking at Alec then to Tess. She took them both up in a huge hug. "Thank you."

"For him." Tess said bravely.

That day they drove off back to Saltwater City in Utah. They knew one day their son would want to know of his father who had given him life. They knew he would want to hear their journeys and stories, and most of all they knew that when he was ready to meet Alec, Alec might not be himself. Still for now they would enjoy their time with J.J. and cherish him every day.

*END*


End file.
